Steve's Ice Cream
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Steve's Ice Cream was an ice cream brand which began as an ice-cream parlor
chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...
owned by Steve Herrell. He opened his first establishment at 191 Elm Street in
Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 81, ...
in 1973. Known as the Original Steve's Ice Cream, the business introduced the concept of super-premium
ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...
and customized ice cream desserts using the
mix-in A mix-in is a type of dessert made of ice cream and another flavoring such as candy. Mix-in desserts are traditionally sold in an ice cream parlor and are made at the time of ordering. Popular examples of this dessert include Dairy Queen's Bliz ...
.


History

Herrell graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1967 with a degree in sociology. In 1973, he mechanically altered a small-batch commercial freezer to produce an extraordinarily rich, creamy, low-air ice cream, and he founded Steve's Ice Cream to sell the new ice cream at his store. Herrell was introduced to the
Heath Bar The Heath bar is a candy bar made of toffee, almonds, and milk chocolate, first manufactured by the Heath Brothers Confectionery in 1928. The Heath bar has been manufactured and distributed by Hershey since its acquisition of the Leaf Interna ...
candy bar by a friend in the late 1960s, and felt it would make an excellent addition to his ice cream. Instead of having pre-mixed flavors like
chocolate chip Chocolate chips or chocolate morsels are small chunks of sweetened chocolate, used as an ingredient in a number of desserts (notably chocolate chip cookies and muffins), in trail mix and less commonly in some breakfast foods such as pancakes. ...
at his store, he had his staff mix freshly made ice cream with candy or other confections based upon customer requests. These candy additions were called "mix-ins," and the custom-blended flavors proved to be a success with customers. In 1975, Steve's charged $.35 and $.55 for cones, with an additional $.10 for each "mix-in" of M&M's, Heath bars and others. A fruit mix-in was another $.10. While waiting in line, customers could pay a dime to rent a piano roll for the store's player piano which Steve had rebuilt. In 1977, Herrell sold his company for $80,000 to Joe Crugnale, the future founder of the Bertucci's restaurant chain. The company was again sold in 1983. For several years the chain was co-located with the
D'Angelo Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He first garnered attention after co-producing the single "U Will Know" ...
sub chain until D'Angelo was purchased by
Yum! Brands Yum! Brands, Inc. (sometimes called simply Yum!) is an American multinational fast food corporation. It is a spin-off of PepsiCo, after they acquired KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. PepsiCo divested the brands in 1997, and these consolidated as ...
in 1993, and Steve's franchises were replaced by
Pizza Hut Pizza Hut, LLC is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by brothers Dan and Frank Carney. The chain, headquartered in Plano, Texas, operates 19,866 restaurants worldw ...
. Steve's began selling pre-packaged ice cream in various grocery stores, which caused friction with franchise owners and Steve's corporate office in the late 1980s. Franchise owners felt they were being undercut by making the Steve's brand available in grocery stores. Additionally, they argued that the sale of prepackaged ice cream bearing the “Steve's” name was inconsistent with the concept that Steve's was a premium, handmade ice cream. Some franchise owners refused to continue paying franchise fees. A number of franchisees were forced to go out of business, which contributed to the company's demise, and the company closed in the late 1990s. In 1980, Herrell opened up a new ice cream business, Herrell's Ice Cream, which is still in existence. He stepped down as a day-to-day operator in 2014, and it is now owned and run by his wife.


The "Mix-In"

Steve's trademarked the term "mix-in," which forced competitors to use other terms. The mix-in consisted of candies or other ingredients blended into the ice cream to order. The popularity of the
Heath Bar The Heath bar is a candy bar made of toffee, almonds, and milk chocolate, first manufactured by the Heath Brothers Confectionery in 1928. The Heath bar has been manufactured and distributed by Hershey since its acquisition of the Leaf Interna ...
mix-in, created by Steve's and later used at other chains, prompted the Heath company to expand its operation to include a commercial foods division. Later chains took the concept of the mix-in and applied it to their operations, creating a whole new industry around it.Leiber, Ron. "Ice-cream parlors going nuts over extras". ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'', May 9, 2003. "Steve Herrell first popularized what were then called 'mix-ins' at Steve's Ice Cream in Boston about 30 years ago. He sold Steve's and later opened another chain, Herrell's, and trademarked 'Smoosh-in' to describe his process."
The business concept at Steve's inspired other chains, such as Cold Stone Creamery and Amy's Ice Creams, and products like the
Dairy Queen International Dairy Queen, Inc. (DQ) is an American multinational fast food chain founded in 1940 and currently headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota. The first Dairy Queen was owned and operated by Sherb Noble and first opened on June 22, ...
Blizzard and
Wendy's Wendy's International, LLC, is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (businessman), Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of D ...
Twisted Frosty product lines. MSNBC travel/leisure journalist Tom Austin credits Herrell for this innovative milestone in the ice cream industry: "Modern gourmet ice cream is widely considered to have been born at the original Steve's in Boston." Steve has been credited with inspiring the founders of
Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream p ...
Ice Cream, whose original store, which opened in 1978, also included – like Steve's – a freezer to churn the ice cream, and a player piano. A photo of Steve, Ben and Jerry hangs on the wall of Herrell's
Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence, Massachusetts, Florence and ...
store.


Brand revival of Steve's Ice Cream

The Steve's Ice Cream brand was acquired by David Stein in 2009, a former employee of Steve's when the company was owned by Integrated Resources in the 1980s. The new Brooklyn-based Steve's Ice Cream was launched in 2011 with the distribution of packaged ice cream (with
guar gum Guar gum, also called guaran, is a galactomannan polysaccharide extracted from guar beans that has thickening and stabilizing properties useful in food, feed, and industrial applications. The guar seeds are mechanically dehusked, hydrated, mi ...
added) plus stores located in Manhattan and Brooklyn. David Stein and The Fresh Ice Cream Co. – which was doing business as Steve’s Ice Cream – filed for bankruptcy in February 2017, and was purchased by Dean Foods Company of
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
in June 2017. As of July 2021, Dean Foods does not show Steve's Ice Cream as one of the brands on its websit


See also

* Marble Slab Creamery


References

{{Reflist, 30em


External links


Herrell's Ice Cream, Steve and Judy Herrell's current business
Restaurants established in 1973 Defunct companies based in Massachusetts Defunct ice cream parlors Defunct restaurant chains in the United States Ice cream parlors in the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 Defunct restaurants in Massachusetts