Plain Jane: New Zealand-style ice cream on Hastings

The idea behind Plain Jane surfaced at a dinner party. Miki Ellis, co-owner of Vancouver‘s own Dachi, had friends over, among them her business partner Stephen Whiteside and Devon Towler, founder of Thank You Pizza, who announced over the course of the evening that he really wanted to open an ice cream shop. The conversation ran late, and the next morning the three of them were left wondering whether they had in fact just agreed to open one.

From dry cleaner to ice cream counter

Plain Jane occupies a former dry cleaner, in the storefront attached to Dachi at the corner of East Hastings and Garden. It started out as a tiny takeout window with no door, a trial run to see whether the neighbourhood would bite. The summer went so well that when the city asked them to set things up properly, the partners chose to commit fully to ice cream. The shop has since been renovated and now has a real entrance, a walk-up counter and a few seats. For the owners, the reward is seeing neighbours regulars in a different setting, and watching the kids line up. The counter stays open year-round, opening later on weekdays once fall settles in, with an after-school happy hour for kids heading home from class.

The New Zealand method

The model comes straight from New Zealand, where real fruit ice cream is a summer institution: frozen fruit and vanilla ice cream pushed together through a machine at the moment of ordering, coming out as a thick, soft swirl. Plain Jane imported two Little Jem machines to do exactly that. The format keeps things streamlined, since producing dairy from scratch comes with a lot of provincial regulation. The base is an organic French vanilla from Avalon Dairy, blended with organic fruit sourced as locally as possible. That means berries, the most reliable fruit to find through the seasons, and a finish the shop sums up in its own motto: not too sweet.

Strawberry, raspberry or blueberry

Plain Jane’s three core flavours cover a lot of ground. Strawberry is the sweet, nostalgic classic, the one the co-owner reaches for when she wants a kids’-menu kind of treat. Raspberry, sharper and more tart, is among the most popular with regulars. Blueberry leans toward a breakfast smoothie, enough to make you feel almost virtuous. Everything comes in a waffle cone or a cup, and a non-dairy option made with Nora’s coconut ice cream keeps the counter open to everyone. Over the summer, a feature strawberry cone dipped in white chocolate and matcha was a hit, and the team plans to build on specials like it while keeping the base as simple as possible.

Only the name is plain

The name came from the Thank You Pizza founder, who wanted something that said exactly what the shop is. Plain Jane stuck stuck. The ice cream flavour does the talking, and it is what keeps the neighbourhood returning. 

Written by Marie-Françoise Malo
Photography by Michal Urbanek

Updated on November 09, 2026

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