But boyhood for the brothers, Anand, Bud \u2013 real name Bharat, but \u201cno one can pronounce it\u201d \u2013 and Dhyan, was spent in Hawke\u2019s Bay. (The brothers\u2019 Indian names were inspired by their parents\u2019 good friends who were Indian.) When Bud was 12, he remembers listing whipped cream as his favourite food. \u201cI always loved dairy,\u201d he says. They used to go picking boysenberries. Their mum would make ice cream with them.<\/p>\n
Early adulthood was spent mostly in Australia\u2019s Noosa, working in high-end restaurants. The trio eventually moved to Toronto with musical ambitions, but \u201cCovid shut that down\u201d. In 2021, while working restaurant jobs and playing live shows, they found themselves in LA. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was still Covid time, so we dropped flyers that said, \u2018Want a free car wash? We\u2019re a rock band from New Zealand. If you follow us on Instagram, we\u2019ll wash your car for free, literally,\u201d Bud, 40, says. \u201cThat was the start of our LA adventures.\u201d<\/p>\n
For six months, seven days a week, the brothers washed cars. Bud reckons they washed about 500. One of them was for Kiwi actor and comedian Rhys Darby, who joked he was going to become Emperors Night\u2019s band manager, a nod to his character\u2019s role in the Flight of the Conchords TV series set in New York City. Eventually, one of his sons started working for them at Hokey Pokey LA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rhys Darby one was fun because we actually had a good amount of Americans comment and say, \u2018This is such a Flight of the Conchords idea.\u2019 I think that Kiwi humour came through,” Bud says. The fanfare landed them an interview on local TV.<\/p>\n
New Zealand the US are nations of ice cream lovers. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
But they never parted with their foodie side. Soon, they joined forces with another Kiwi in LA who was making real fruit ice cream, running the front end of the business. Popular in New Zealand, the real-fruit ice-cream machines squish ingredients into ice cream using a tornado-shaped crusher through a funnel, which then comes out as soft serve. It was a penny drop moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided that there were a whole lot more things that could be done with the machines as far as flavours go,\u201d Anand says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing that happened was Bud cooked up a pot of hokey pokey and blended it through the ice cream, and he went, \u2018Oh my god, this is amazing. We have to put this on the menu immediately,\u2019 And so that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought no one else in the world is doing this,\u201d Bud says. <\/p>\n
In hindsight, making ice cream as their schtick probably made sense. According to the World Population Review website, New Zealand eats more ice cream per capita than any other country. In second place is the US. Also, as a child, Dhyan\u2019s nickname was \u201cDairy Boy\u201d. He\u2019s proud about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019ve thought this through, Dhyan,\u201d Bud says.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just say if you leave me in a room with a bottle of milk, that bottle of milk may not be safe,\u201d Dhyan says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll right, he is happy to be known as Dairy Boy. There you go,\u201d Bud says.<\/p>\n
The brothers all have their own part to play in the business. Bud does the ice cream, Anand does the marketing and creative coffee flavours, and Dhyan makes the pavlovas and makes sure nothing breaks.<\/p>\n
They have stuck together through travels, music ambitions and running a business. Do they have a rare sibling relationship where there are no fights? How do they stop driving each other crazy?<\/p>\n
Always together. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
All three agree that working side-by-side has been the hardest part of their journey.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Bud\u2019s] shirt is just covering all the bruises on his body,\u201d Dhyan jokes. <\/p>\n
In seriousness, he adds: \u201cOne of the things you find is that being siblings, you can say anything to each other. There\u2019s not the politeness that is there even with your friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is as blunt as a sibling.\u201d<\/p>\n
They say the coastal LA lifestyle suits them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got the American attitude of accepting people with different attitudes and ambitions,\u201d Bud says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always felt in New Zealand and Australia that we were on the other side of the world to everything else, that everything was always happening elsewhere. And now in LA, you feel like everything is happening right here,\u201d Anand says.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I do think New Zealanders are a bit like hobbits,\u201d Bud says. \u201cWe love our small lives, and then we\u2019re surprisingly adventurous at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
They believe they are living the dream.<\/p>\n
Anand says they feel lucky to be representing a part of New Zealand in the top spots in LA. And they\u2019re humbled by the feedback from customers and local publicity.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s] cool to come to one of the most competitive cities in the world and to get that kind of response,\u201d Bud says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say with L&P it\u2019s \u2018world-famous New Zealand\u2019. Well, Hokey Pokey is now world-famous all over the world. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s getting there anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top tips for Kiwis visiting Los Angeles<\/p>\n
Anand Chalmers shares his recommendations for LA\u2019s best spots<\/p>\n
Villa\u2019s Tacos <\/p>\n
Los Angeles is home to some of the best Mexican food in the world, and these tacos are justifiably famous, made even more famous by their recent appearance in Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show. There are two locations, but the one we\u2019ve been to is their stand in the Grand Central Market in Downtown LA.<\/p>\n
Century City Mall<\/p>\n
Not usually on every tourist\u2019s list, but this is a luxurious outdoor mall\/dining precinct that\u2019s just on the edge of Beverly Hills, perfect for a relaxing day shopping and eating away from the hustle and bustle of the city and as it so happens, it\u2019s also the flagship location of a great New Zealand ice cream store run by three brothers.<\/p>\n
Griffith Park Observatory<\/p>\n
One of the things people don\u2019t realise about LA before you visit is how connected it is to the natural environment. There are hikes and parks and woodlands right on the edge of the urban sprawl, and this park is one of the best examples of this.<\/p>\n
Laurel Hardware and Ysabel<\/p>\n
These two bar\/restaurants are owned by the same hospitality group, and while the food and drinks are good, you\u2019re coming here for the beautiful dining areas that seamlessly spread from inside to outside and take advantage of LA\u2019s year-round great weather. This is the kind of place to see and be seen, and you just know that there\u2019s a movie deal going down a couple of tables away from you.<\/p>\n
Take a drive through the Hollywood Hills<\/p>\n
LA has some of the most stunning and varied residential architecture of any city we\u2019ve seen, and some of the best places to see some amazing properties is in the winding streets of the hills and canyons that stretch from Santa Monica to Los Feliz. <\/p>\n
The atmosphere is surprisingly serene and you\u2019ll get stunning new views around every corner. We especially love Beachwood Canyon and The Bird Streets.<\/p>\n
Varsha Anjali is a journalist for the lifestyle team at the Herald. She is based in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But boyhood for the brothers, Anand, Bud \u2013 real name Bharat, but \u201cno one can pronounce it\u201d \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[43755,6326,20438,102531,430,85921,2066,28318,156,71,3594,79171,2027,20732,55623,20731,28317,3607,117,111,139,69,79172,34260,74908,51212,24831,17213,165,1529,43754,102,17450,206786],"class_list":["post-400675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-anjali","tag-biggest","tag-brothers","tag-bullock","tag-celebrities","tag-chalmers","tag-cream","tag-dicaprio","tag-entertainment","tag-from","tag-hit","tag-hokey","tag-ice","tag-kravitz","tag-la","tag-lenny","tag-leonardo","tag-napier","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pokey","tag-sandra","tag-serving","tag-shops","tag-siblings","tag-speaks","tag-their","tag-three","tag-varsha","tag-with","tag-worlds","tag-zealandstyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}