‘Slice’ of heaven

Just in time for National Ice Cream Month, a new ice cream truck hit the streets of Honolulu. Slice by HB Baking — a dessert shop owned by pastry chef Heather Lukela, located inside of Jolene’s Market (100 N. Beretania St.) in Chinatown — just launched its mobile counterpart, aptly named Slice Cream Truck. You can currently find the cute pink truck at the White Sands Hotel on Wednesdays (3-5 p.m.) and Waikiki Sand Villa Hotel on Thursdays (time varies), according to business general manager David Lukela (he’s also Heather’s husband).

“We wanted to expand and were looking to do a second location,” he explains. “Our business evolved. The way we felt its vision was going, this was the most logical evolution of our business — we sell ice cream; why not put it in the truck?

“We have a completely different business model; it’s not like a traditional ice cream truck that goes around the neighborhood and blasts music,” David adds.

To start, Slice by HB Baking will sell “cutie pies” ($7) — cup versions of the business’s popular ice cream pies — in its top-selling flavors: Snuggy Bear, Strawberry Shortcake and Rocky Road Cookie Dough. Snuggy Bear is a crowd-pleaser and features all of David’s favorites — coffee almond fudge and English toffee ice creams, salted milk crumble, and an Oreo cookie crust — in one flavor.

“We also have a dairy-free matcha cookies and cream with kinako crumble and an Oreo crust,” David says. “It’s essentially vegan, if you can tolerate the sugar. We figured we’d start with what sells the best.

“We wanted to get a bigger reach and thought we could have a lot of fun with this cup concept,” he adds. “We wanted to get our brand out there a little more; a lot of people have come and found us in China-town, but we wanted to expand more into Honolulu.”

If the kawaii pink truck reminds you of the smaller ones found in Japan, you’re absolutely correct.

“I scoured the internet and found this one from Japan,” David says. “Most of it was because of costs; a brand-new truck for our business was just really expensive. This is our starter truck, and we’re trying to grow into it and see how it evolves.”

“We just celebrated the first anniversary of our ice cream business, so getting this truck was like a present to ourselves,” Heather adds.

Slice Cream truck is also open for catering and special events. Send the business a message via Instagram (@slicecreamtruck) or call the store.

Slice Cream Truck

White Sands Hotel (431 Nohonani St.) and Waikiki Sand Villa Hotel (2375 Ala Wai Blvd.)

Call: 808-202-8601
Instagram: @slicecreamtruck
How to pay: In person only; call for catering and event inquiries
How to order: Cash and credit cards accepted