Vancouver is a beautiful city.
Compared to the skyscraper-dotted skyline of New York City where internet star Dylan Lemay opened his own ice cream shop last summer, the B.C. metropolis offers a stark contrast.
Lemay, who boasts over 11 million TikTok followers, nearly five million YouTube followers, and nearly 300,000 Instagram followers, is known for his captivating storytelling and ice cream-scooping.
The internet star got his viral start on TikTok while working at Cold Stone Creamery and recently opened up his own ice cream shop called Catch'N Ice Cream in New York City.
Lemay visited Vancouver this week to host a cookie-decorating workshop at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
"The workshop was great. It was a ton of fun," Lemay tells V.I.A. "I got to have tons of one-on-one conversations and give people tips on creating content."
The cookies were decorated in the style of "Hard-Edge abstract" which is the same name as the art gallery's current exhibition, Hard-Edge.
Though the art style may seem intimidating when faced with a small, edible canvas, Lemay says that it's actually a great way to introduce folks to cookie-decorating because it's "pretty simple yet so fun and can be as intense or as complicated as you would like it to be."
Dylan Lemay's favourite things about Vancouver
While Lemay's trip to Vancouver was brief, he managed to squeeze in some exploring. Grouse Mountain was one of his most memorable activities while in town.
"It was amazing to go up the gondola to the top," he shares, adding that he went snowshoeing at the top. "It was so much fun. It was absolutely beautiful, and the weather was perfect. It was nice and warm and sunny, but also the perfect cold at the same time."
Vancouver's proximity to nature is, as it turns out, one of Lemay's favourite parts of the city.
"My first impression of Vancouver was that it is absolutely beautiful here. The amount of nature everywhere that is intermingled with the city is so counter to what I'm used to being in New York," he tells V.I.A. "It's been amazing to land and just see mountains, see trees, and see the city intermingled with nature. Beautiful."
He adds that his visit wasn't as long as he wanted it to be and that he's already planning to come back.
Though another visit may happen this year, it won't be during the warmer months as the new business owner wants to enjoy his first full summer running his ice cream shop.
What ice cream flavour describes Vancouver?
When an ice cream connoisseur such as Dylan Lemay visits Vancouver, there is one important question that cannot go unasked: what ice cream flavour describes Vancouver best?
The first taste to come to Lemay's mind is Moose Tracks. "It's a very big, popular flavour in Michigan where I'm from and when I think of eating it, it reminds me of the wilderness in Michigan. That's the feeling that I feel when I'm here in Vancouver."
Lemay's favourite ice cream flavour, however, is cookie dough ice cream.
