Richard Makin bought a van "from the sweetest Italian Jehovah's Witness family"

[Guest Kurt]

Richard Makin's converted van didn't come with a chime so he arrives with "a beep... and me singing out the window". Photo: Joe Perry

After graduating from SOAS University with a linguistics degree, he secured an internship in the States, where he pretty much ate his way around San Francisco's vibrant street food scene. On returning to London he bought a van "from the sweetest Italian Jehovah's Witness family" and was selling ice cream a week later, though it took three years to build up his brand.
"When I sold my first ice cream it was a mixture of total pride and terror. It's a weird feeling to put a price on something which you've laboured over, literally, for years. But in the end, driving away from a market with an empty freezer and a little bit of cash in my pocket was honestly like a drug — I was absolutely ecstatic."
While Bonar says there's not as much fighting over patches as there used to be, evidence of ongoing ice cream wars can be summoned instantly via the internet, "Mr Yummy attacks his arch-rival Mr Whippy" and "an L Lewis driver calls another driver a fat bastard" – that sort of thing.
Has Makin encountered any hostility? "The ice cream community, regardless of whether it's a van or a shop, has been quite a difficult thing to break into," he says. "It's really competitive so there's a lot of tension and it's quite territorial. People are fine with you existing as long as you're not on their turf. I totally understand, everyone is precious about their baby," he adds. "But the way I see it, a rising tide lifts all boats, the more people that are interested in good quality ice cream, the better we'll all do. It's like those streets in London with 25 barista coffee shops — they all do great because the street becomes a destination".

source (What's It Like To Be An Ice Cream Seller In London?)