Track Down Mapo Gelato’s Vintage Ice-Cream Van for Jersey-Milk Soft Serve, Matcha Choc-Tops and Silky Gelato

Every day, Jamal Khalifa looks out of his window and thinks, “Is today a good day to sell gelato?”

“If it’s not a hot day, I go to the city. People still love ice-cream no matter the weather, and that’s what’s so nice about selling ice-cream for a living – people are so happy to see you,” he says.

Khalifa is the director of Mapo Events, a roaming version of the Mapo stores in Bondi and Newtown, which have lines snaking out the door all year round for their freshly churned gelato flavours.

On clear-sky days, Khalifa drives Mapo’s renovated vintage van to Maroubra Beach, parking between the beach and Mahon Pool. If it’s cloudy he finds a park by Westfield on Pitt Street. Earlier this year he tried selling gelato at Chinatown’s night markets, but the soggy summer weather put the brakes on that location for a while.

“I really love it. It’s an old Bedford from 1976, and the good thing about it is both windows open so it’s very breezy.”

One of the more popular requests at the van is for Mapo’s light soft serve, which you can’t buy in-store. “We’ve got a soft-serve machine that’s unique to the van. It’s a jersey-milk soft serve and the milk is from Tasmania. It’s cold pasteurised and has a natural yellow colour to it. It’s like a fior di latte,” says Khalifa.

You’ll also get choc-tops, another Mapo creation you can’t get anywhere else. “Kids would ask me for a choc-top, so we made our own. There’s one with Mexican dark chocolate and a matcha one.”

Khalifa and Mapo owner Matteo Pochintesta are friends; they met at uni studying architecture, and Khalifa also works in the Bondi store. They bought the ice-cream van during the pandemic and had it fitted out with pozzetti – the metal containers that keep gelato at the optimal temperature. The van has space for 16 flavours, but Khalifa tends to take eight (his favourite is the Piedmont hazelnut).

“I make all the gelato for the van on a Wednesday,” he says. “I drive the van over to the shop to fill it up, and then I head off to the beaches or the city.”

Khalifa operates the Mapo van from about 2pm to 8pm most days of the week. He won’t go out if it’s pouring down, but once he’s parked he’ll post a pic to Instagram to let people know where he is.

If you happen to be walking by, listen out for the Brazilian or African funk blaring from the van’s state-of-the-art speakers. “We don’t have the traditional Greensleeves sound,” says Khalifa, laughing. “It has speakers on the top, but we just blare out Brazilian or African funk. It catches people’s attention – goodtime music.”

@mapobus