The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality ordered Van Leeuwen Ice Cream at 4301 La Jolla Village Drive closed on September 15, 2026, according to county food-facility inspection records reviewed by SanDiegoVille. The inspection cited two violations: a major violation for vermin and a minor violation involving hot and cold water.
The county's online inspection record does not specify what type of vermin was observed at the Van Leeuwen location or provide the inspector's detailed narrative, so it would be premature to characterize the problem specifically as rodents, cockroaches, flies or another pest. Under San Diego County's inspection system, however, the vermin category requires food facilities to be free of rodents, insects, birds and other animals.
More significantly, county guidelines identify an active vermin infestation as one of the conditions that can constitute an imminent health hazard and require a food facility to close. When a major violation cannot be immediately corrected or an acceptable alternative implemented, the county can order the affected operation closed until the problem is resolved.
A closure is different from simply receiving a poor inspection grade. San Diego County explains that an establishment ordered closed must remain closed until health officials provide written authorization for it to reopen, and all major violations must first be corrected or an acceptable alternative put in place.
No numerical score or letter grade was posted for Van Leeuwen's September 15 inspection in the records reviewed by SanDiegoVille. The absence of a score should not be interpreted as a zero or failing numerical grade; the county instead recorded the inspection result as "Ordered Closed."
The closure represents a dramatic reversal from the shop's previous inspection history. County records supplied to SanDiegoVille show the UTC location received a perfect 100-point "A" grade with no violations during routine inspections on December 19, 2024, January 30, 2025, and September 25, 2025.
Van Leeuwen only opened its first San Diego scoop shop at Westfield UTC in January 2025. The New York-born ice cream company had originally been expected to arrive in late 2024 before ultimately celebrating its San Diego debut on January 17, 2025.
The company was founded in New York City in 2008 by brothers Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O'Neill, initially selling ice cream from a yellow truck. It has since grown into a nationally recognized brand known for French-style ice cream made with egg yolks as well as an extensive lineup of vegan flavors.
The Westfield UTC store serves the company's dairy and vegan ice creams along with milkshakes, sundaes, cookies, ice cream sandwiches and pints. Van Leeuwen's official website lists the San Diego shop as Suite 2035 at 4301 La Jolla Village Drive and ordinarily advertises hours of 11am-11pm Sunday through Thursday and 11am-midnight Friday and Saturday.
Van Leeuwen joined an unusually crowded dessert scene at Westfield UTC when it opened. The shopping center's current food directory includes fellow frozen-dessert businesses such as Salt & Straw, SomiSomi, Venchi and Pinkberry, along with numerous bakeries, tea shops and other sweets-focused concepts.
As of Thursday morning, Westfield UTC's online directory was displaying Van Leeuwen Ice Cream as closed, consistent with the county's September 15 closure order. Van Leeuwen's own location page, however, continued to display the shop's ordinary operating hours, and its online ordering system still contained a menu and ordering hours, underscoring that automated business listings should not be taken as confirmation that health officials have authorized the store to reopen.
The county describes a reinspection as a follow-up visit used to determine whether a food facility has complied with an official notice of violation. Once officials determine that the major violations responsible for a closure have been corrected, the inspection database records the result as "Approved to Reopen."
The county's public-facing record currently establishes that Van Leeuwen was ordered closed for a major vermin violation and a minor hot-and-cold-water violation, but it does not provide enough detail to determine the extent of the vermin issue, where it was observed within the business or whether any food was contaminated. Those details would require the inspector's complete report, which the county says is a public record and can be requested through its Public Records Center.
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is located at 4301 La Jolla Village Drive, Suite 2035, in San Diego's Westfield UTC mall. For more information, visit vanleeuwenicecream.com.
Originally published on September 16, 2026.
Originally published on September 16, 2026.
