Plant Love debuts new vegan ice cream shop in Gulfport

exterior of an ice cream shop with murals painted on the pillars

Plant Love Ice Cream is now open at 2901 Beach Boulevard South in Gulfport. The shop will host a special grand opening event with tarot card readers, live music, and flavor specials on Saturday, June 17.

This plant-based dessert hub is one of the best ice cream shops in Florida. Yes, each scoop is 100% vegan, but I guarantee you couldn’t tell the difference. Owner JoAnn Matchin is devoted to the craft of ice cream making. Her team is churning out nearly 100 gallons every week.

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Experience the amazing vegan ice cream flights at Plant Love Ice Cream

Plant Love Ice Cream expands to Gulfport

“I’ll look at cookbooks and research recipes and try to figure out how I can turn that into vegan ice cream,” said owner JoAnn Matchin. “We first opened in St. Pete nearly 4 years ago and on the first day of opening we completely sold out of all of our ice cream.”

The fervor this community has for Plant Love’s speciality scoops is evident. Multiple years of success presented Matchin with the opportunity to grow her vegan ice cream hot spot. The new Gulfport location is small in size, but is bursting with the quintessential flair you’d expect from Plant Love. Their iconic golden ice cream mural adorns a pillar outside, and the wall of the interior.

Owner JoAnn Matchin (center) stands with her team inside the new Gulfport location

There’s a cozy seat inside the parlor below a sequence of green plants. The exterior has several cozy rocking chairs customers can lounge in. Gulfport is the kind of town where you slow down a bit. I often feel like I’m on vacation whenever I bike to the Florida community.

Birthday cake, divine chocolate, and strawberry shortcake scoops at Plant Love Ice Cream

Offering vegan ice cream flights

Even before the official grand opening, Plant Love is attracting new customers daily.

“Over half of our customers aren’t even vegan,” Matchin said. “They just really love our product, and they can tell each scoop is made from scratch.”

If it’s your first time in the shop, I highly recommend you order up an ice cream flight. You can select five different flavors to include, and the variety avail is astounding. Glorious golden mylk, beautiful blueberry bramble, a strong espresso, cookie butter and more extraordinary varieties remain the most popular scoops available.

A scoop of the famous Golden Mylk Ice Cream

Eco-friendly practices at the shop

“We want to plant love everywhere that we go,” said Matchin. “We’ve always been an eco-conscious shop; there are no plastic straws here, and all of the containers are compostable. We want to do our part and be as sustainable as possible.”

Plant Love Ice Cream is also in the running for “Best Ice Cream Shop” in Tampa Bay Times’ Best of the Best Awards, and you can vote now for your favorite shop.

The Gulfport shop will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 12pm-9pm, and Sunday from noon to 8pm. Follow Plant Love Ice Cream on Instagram to see more of their flavors, and to keep up with new events.

A scoop of blueberry bramble inside a waffle cone. Gluten-free cones are also available.

Locations:

  • 953 Central Avenue
  • 2901 Beach Blvd S

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