How Big Gay Ice Cream Plans to Dominate the World
This week, Yahoo Food is celebrating America’s favorite dessert with a series of profiles, recipes and photo galleries all dedicated to the creamy, delicious dessert. Check out our Ice Cream page for complete coverage!
Sprinkle-laden cones from Big Gay Ice Cream. (Photo: Big Gay Ice Cream)
When Big Gay Ice Cream launched in 2009, no one was thinking world-domination plan. It seemed like a quirky summertime thing — an old ice cream truck with a funny name run by a bassoonist and a fashion executive. But their soft serve was yummy, the founders charming and forthright, and the concept bold enough to catch the attention of jaded New Yorkers. Fans lined up daily and they were the hit of the season, like that catchy pop song you hear every time you head to the beach.
Except unlike that Top 40 tune, they’re still here. And now they do have a world domination plan, sort of. The duo behind Big Gay Ice Cream, Bryan Petroff and Douglas Quint, has expanded their operation to include two shops in Manhattan, one in Philadelphia, and one more on the way in Los Angeles. They also published their first cookbook this summer — “Big Gay Ice Cream Saucy Stories & Frozen Treats: Going All the Way with Ice Cream,” and it boasts an introduction by none other than food world royalty Anthony Bourdain.
As Yahoo Food’s Ice Cream Nation week comes to a close, we thought it would be fun to check in on Big Gay Ice Cream. Here’s an email chat we had with Petroff about brand building, book signings, and America’s ice cream preferences.
Petroff and Quint outside their NYC shop. (Photo: Big Gay Ice Cream)
It’s Ice Cream Nation week on Yahoo Food. We did a survey to celebrate and found out that 86 percent of Americans eat ice cream once a week. How often do you eat ice cream?
If you’ve seen our waistlines, you know we eat ice cream a lot more than that. But for us, it’s both pleasure and work, so we try to keep our intake to samples, tastings, and research. Sometimes, though, we have to be kids again, and overindulge in a big-ass sundae or shake.
Do you ever eat other brands, or do you feel like you’re cheating on yourselves?
Of course we eat other brands of ice cream. Ice cream is too important of a food group to stick to just one variety.
According to the survey, Americans also prefer traditional scoops to soft serve. But in the Northeast, soft serve rules. What does this say about the Northeast?
We’re certainly not going to say someone’s choice in ice cream is wrong. That’s foolish; ice cream is great in all its forms. Although one strange thing started happening after opening our shops: We began to hear from naysayers that soft serve wasn’t “real ice cream.” What does that even mean? It’s amazing how many self-professed “foodies” have no idea what actually goes in to making ice cream in general, and soft serve ice cream specifically. But, getting back to the question at hand, let’s remember this: The Northeast gave us our independence, our Founding Fathers, doughnuts, and legalized same-sex marriage. Perhaps we should continue to trust in the wisdom of the Northeast. :-)
The ice cream truck that started it all. (Photo: Big Gay Ice Cream)
Cups also beat cones. What do you think of that?
As long as there’s ice cream inside, the vessel is incidental.
And any guess as to America’s favorite flavor? Spoiler alert: It’s chocolate.
Then we’re in the minority here. Neither of us is a chocoholic. It was never our go-to dessert, even growing up. We like chocolate when it’s been kicked up a notch in some way, such as spicy or salty.
What is your favorite flavor?
We may sound, well, vanilla, for saying so, but it’s, well, vanilla. When it’s great, vanilla is like the best glass of cold milk you’ve ever had. On top of that, it’s a great blank slate for so many other flavors and combinations.
How’s the book tour going?
It’s been pretty nonstop and we still have a few more months of events planned. For a while there we were in a different city every day. I think on more than one occasion I forgot where I actually was. Fortunately, we have three great store teams to run the shops while we are on the road.
Petroff and Quint feigning boredom at a book signing event. (Photo: Big Gay Ice Cream)
Any highlights?
As crazy as the tour has been, it’s been a lot of fun. Even the turnout in cities where we aren’t located has been great. In addition to a lot of straight-up book signings and appearances, we’ve also teamed up with many chefs and restaurant owners for pop-ups and special menus. We’ve collaborated with Humphry Slocombe (San Francisco), Joe Beef (Montreal), Sunshine Tavern (Portland, Ore.), Gema Pizzeria (Montreal), Fidel Gastro’s Lisa Marie (Toronto), and in a few weeks we’ll be in Chicago with Hot Chocolate and Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits.
When you launched Big Gay Ice Cream, was there a world domination plan? Did you see a day when you’d have multiple shops, a cookbook, celebrity friends?
Yes, it’s all happening as planned. (Cue sinister laughter.) Honestly though, we had no idea what to expect when we started. We are constantly thrilled, amazed, overwhelmed, and grateful to everyone who has helped make the business what it is today.
The Greenwich Village Big Gay Ice Cream shop. (Photo: Aaron/Flickr)
What’s next for the brand?
We have a non-stop schedule of events and festivals that take us into December. So some R&R this winter would be nice. We are still working on trying to get our Los Angeles shop up and running. We haven’t given up on that, but we also have no timeline for it to happen now. That said, next year you’ll probably see a few more Big Gay Ice Cream shops open. But we’ve learned our lesson with Los Angeles: you won’t hear about them until they’re ready to open.
If someone goes to Big Gay Ice Cream for the first time, what should he or she order?
We always recommend starting with the Salty Pimp, our most popular cone. It’s a vanilla ice cream cone, injected with dulce de leche, sprinkled with sea salt, and dipped in chocolate.
What’s been the highlight of your summer?
This has been a whirlwind of a summer, but easily the two biggest highlights were the publication of our cookbook and the opening of our Philadelphia shop.
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