We all have that one friend – the connector – who can recommend anyone from a mortgage broker to a hair colourist. Mine is Jordan Grant, founder of members-only luxury shopping platform Mile, who I first met on a Miu Miu trip to Saint-Tropez in 2022. (We bonded in the back of a Sprinter van en route to a nightclub after she petitioned our chauffeur to “drive it like you stole it”.)
And so, when Grant insisted I needed to be among the first to taste a Beku Bar, I took notice. The plant-based frozen dessert bars by visionary Indonesian Australian chef Zen Ong look more like large unpolished gemstones than ice cream. (“Beku” means “frozen” in Indonesian.) Inside my dry-ice-packed to-go box were six surreal edible pebbles. The satisfying crack of biting through the outer shell (like a choc-ice) is followed by a zinging flavour hit: spiced quince, kluwek chocolate, Japanese vanilla bean and – my favourite – ceremonial matcha.
“Why not present ice cream as if it’s a beauty product?” says London-based Ong, 37, of his food, which channels the same “timeless, minimalist and ageless approach to design” as the fashion folk, architects and musicians who he counts as both friends and collaborators. With experience at Michelin-starred restaurants and a roster of high-profile private clients, Ong’s foray into ice cream was meant to be temporary. In 2021, while living in LA, Ong pivoted from running supper clubs to selling his innovative spin on Indonesian vegan ice cream from a back-alley hatch in West Hollywood to meet social-distancing rules. Soon, each new flavour launch was attracting the hype (and queues) of a sneaker drop. It was about this time that he met Jordan Grant’s partner in both life and business, Joe Wilkinson (cofounder of luxury group Hulcan, which is behind the forthcoming rebirth of Matches Fashion), at an LA sports bar.
Fast-forward to summer 2026 and, with the group’s backing, Ong’s ambrosial Beku brand is readying to land in London with a Stoke Newington flagship that’s set to rip up the traditional ice-cream shop rule book. “I want it to be an environment where kids can play and the parents can relax, which is also a space where we can host a beautiful, curated high-end fashion event or listening party,” Ong says. He has a keen eye for design and has himself overseen the fit-out of the shop, which will host an open kitchen-cum-laboratory in the basement. Everything is considered, right down to the edible paper wrapper that Beku Bars are served in (Ong has entirely done away with spoons and napkins in a bid to cut down on waste).
“There’s this mysterious ancient temple in Indonesia called Gunung Padang, which is built into a mountain,” he says. “My romantic idea is to imagine Beku as a modern-day temple of ice cream.”
