Three generations of gelato passion.
From a Sicilian dream to a specialised booking platform for mobile ice cream catering. Discover how family tradition meets digital innovation.
Where it all began
It all started with my grandfather, Calogero Agnello. He came to Germany from Sicily as a guest worker to build a future for himself. He worked hard in industry and saved every penny. His goal? To bring a piece of home to Germany. With his hard-earned money, he bought his first ice cream van – the foundation of a family tradition in Kuppenheim spanning over 50 years.
With my grandpa Calogero at the ice cream van – April 1997
I grew up with the ice cream business. From 2000 to 2011, my grandpa Calogero drove the ice cream van through the streets of Ötigheim every summer evening – I was one of the kids who got their ice cream there. The bell, the chats, the smell of freshly baked waffle cones: that was everyday family life for me.
Coming home to Sicily
Calogero and his wife now enjoy their retirement where it all began: in Sicily. After decades of hard work in Germany, they've returned to where they once set off with their first ice cream van to bring a piece of Italian home to Kuppenheim. The circle has closed – and the tradition carries on in Germany, now with my father at the wheel.
The pilot project: eisfavorite.de
In early 2026 I gave my father a gift: a modern digital presence for his ice cream van. That's how eisfavorite.de came about – the family catering business's own website, with a system for direct customer enquiries. What was meant as a family hobby project took off within a few weeks with unexpected response.
Note: eisfavorite.de is the standalone website of my father's catering business in Kuppenheim – a separate company with no connection to the eisbuchen.de booking platform. It was simply the spark that brought eisbuchen.de to life.
The pilot project in numbers 📈
A problem that had to be solved
My father had to turn down many of these requests – the locations were often simply too far away, the travel too much effort. That's when it became clear to me: the demand for mobile ice cream catering is there, but there's no easy way to find a regional vendor – and no easy way for vendors to become visible regionally.
Other event sites are spread far too wide.
Vendors often don't have time for expensive online marketing.
Customers search in vain for regional vendors.
The idea: eisbuchen.de 💡
In mid-May 2026, building on this experience, I launched eisbuchen.de – a standalone, specialised booking platform for mobile ice cream catering in Germany. Not another ice cream van business, but a marketplace: my goal was to give every ice cream van business the chance to reach high-quality regional requests without an expensive website of their own – and to make it simple, regional and transparent for hosts to find the right vendor nearby.
eisbuchen.de today: hire an ice cream van anywhere in Germany
The family story has become a specialised booking platform for mobile ice cream catering in Germany. On eisbuchen.de you instantly get suitable quotes in the planner and can book an ice cream van, a mobile ice cream unit, an Ape, an ice cream bike or a soft serve machine for any event – from weddings to company parties.
Instead of a long search, you fill in the planner, compare all matching regional vendors near you in your dashboard with a ready-made total price, and request up to three quotes ready to book. Your quote states a fixed price for the included amount – you only pay more if your guests really eat more. Read more about prices on the price overview, and planning tips in the guide magazine.
I'm Enrico
Son of Andrea and grandson of Calogero Agnello. I grew up with my family's ice cream catering business and I'm delighted to now bring this tradition into the digital age.
Enrico Agnello