About Us

Vaca's Creamery was created out of Mariana and Dylan's love for vegan ice cream, and a desire to make it outstanding. Though Mariana is from Brazil and Dylan is from the suburbs of Chicago, they met in Austin, Texas, working at Sweet Ritual, one of the first vegan ice cream shops in the country. Years later, after starting a vegan, gluten-free waffle cone business in ATX, a vegan home bakery, and moving to Chicago during the pandemic, Vaca's finally became a reality in May 2021!

About our values and pricing

We realize that our prices are a bit higher than you may be used to, but we aren't a traditional shop, and our model reflects our values:

• We are tipless and pay our staff above a living wage. Tipping is an inherently flawed system that has roots in slavery and sexism.
• We believe in using quality ingredients that align morally with vegan values above all. That means absolutely no animal sources, no dairy, no eggs, no honey, and no sugar that is refined with bone char, etc... We seek assurances of social responsibility for critical ingredients such as chocolate, which more often than not comes through child/slave labor.
• All of our ice cream, waffle cones, sauces and toppings (but a few that are sourced from great suppliers) are painstakingly made within our 400 square foot shop, with love and care, by the hands of employees who are paid fairly.
• We use high quality, certified gluten-free oat milk for our chocolate and vanilla soft serve.

In truth, our prices could be much lower if we were not committed to these concepts, if we bought mass-produced toppings, a cheaper oat milk, or let our employees depend on tips; but we refuse to not give it our best and contribute to unjust systems simply because it is the norm.