Big Gay Ice Cream

Big Gay Ice Cream
Private company
Industry Ice cream
Founded 2009 in New York City, New York
Headquarters New York City, New York, United States
Key people
 Doug Quint, Bryan Petroff
Products Ice cream
Website www.biggayicecream.com
The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck

Big Gay Ice Cream (BGIC) is a New York City-based company that started with an ice cream truck and now operates 2 New York City store fronts. They specialize in serving soft serve ice cream cones, cups, and novelties with a menu of unique and unusual flavors and toppings.[1] BGIC was co-founded by partners Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff. BGIC is part of a wider trend of gourmet, and upscale food trucks occurring in the United States.[2]

BGIC has an official theme song composed, and recorded by The Go-Go's' guitarist and singer/songwriter Jane Wiedlin.[3]

Name

The use of gay in the name of the company has two meanings; referring both to the sexual orientation of co-founders Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff being gay, as well as simply happy. According to Quint: "If I weren't gay, I wouldn't call it the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. And if I weren't happy, I wouldn't have the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. It would just be the big crabby ice cream truck."[4]

They were not seeking to be hyper-political with the name, but allowed customers to read into it however they wanted.[1]

History

Doug Quint is a free-lance classical bassoonist and was looking for a secondary occupation in the summer off-season. A flautist friend had been operating an ice cream truck of her own and suggested doing the same to Quint, who took her up on the suggestion.[5] In June 2009, Doug Quint and his partner, Bryan Petroff, founded and began operating the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck at Brooklyn Pride in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.[6] They currently operate the Big Gay Ice Cream truck during the summer months, parking at various locations throughout New York City, and tweeting their location and specialty items du jour to their followers.

Storefront in the East Village

After two years of operating a roving truck, they opened their first store, the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, in the East Village of New York City.[1] About a year later, they opened a second location in the West Village of New York City. They opened in Philadelphia at the corner of South and South Broad Streets in 2015.[7] A pop-up store opened in the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles in late 2014.[8]

Quint and Petroff co-authored a book, Big Gay Ice Cream: Saucy Stories & Frozen Treats: Going All the Way with Ice Cream, with an introduction by Anthony Bourdain, released in 2015.[9]

The business has pursued the use of social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to connect directly with their clientele rather than through traditional means of advertising.[10] Quint and Petroff also frequently blog about their experience both on and off the truck.

In 2017 Big Gay Ice Cream started selling packaged pints of "hard" ice cream in convenience stores and grocery stores.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 BIG GAY ICE CREAM CHIEF DOUG QUINT GIVES THE SCOOP TO CNN MONEY: VIDEO
  2. ↑ "Start-Up Trends: Food Trucks". Inc.com. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  3. ↑ "Interview: Doug Quint of the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck". Menuism Dining Blog. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "New Yorkers Get Taste Of Big Gay Ice Cream Truck". NPR.org. 8 August 2009. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  5. ↑ "Andrew Zimmern on 3 Sweet Ice Cream Shops: BGICT, Features, New York - Travel destinations, blogs, contests and offers from Delta Sky Magazine + deltaskymag.com". Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Now Open: The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck – Eat Me Daily". Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  7. ↑ "Big Gay Ice Cream opens Philly shop", The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 1, 2015.
  8. ↑ Jen Harris, "Big Gay Ice Cream Upstairs now open at Upstairs Bar at Ace Hotel downtown", Los Angeles Times, November 11, 2014.
  9. ↑ Jenny Rosenstrach, "Cooking", The New York Times, May 31, 2015.
  10. ↑ Brian Anthony Hernandez, BusinessNewsDaily Staff Writer. "Q&A: The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck's Crazy Twitter Ride". Business News Daily. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
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