Big Gay Ice Cream (BGIC) is a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

–based company that started with an

ice cream truck An ice cream van (British) or ice cream truck (North American) is a commercial vehicle that serves as a mobile retail outlet for ice cream, usually during the spring and summer. Ice cream vans are often seen parked at public events, or near ...

and now operates four storefronts in the city. Co-founded by Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff, BGIC specializes in

soft-serve ice cream Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is a frozen dessert, similar to ice cream but softer and less dense due to air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve has been sold commercially since the late 1930s in the US. In the US, soft serve is ...

cones, cups, and novelties with a menu of unique and unusual flavors and toppings.BIG GAY ICE CREAM CHIEF DOUG QUINT GIVES THE SCOOP TO CNN MONEY: VIDEO
/ref> BGIC is part of a wider trend of

gourmet Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by refined, even elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, of ...

and upscale

food truck A food truck is a large motorized vehicle (such as a van) or trailer, equipped to cook, prepare, serve, and/or sell food. Some, including ice cream trucks, sell frozen or prepackaged food; others have on-board kitchens and prepare food from scratc ...

s popular in the United States. BGIC has an official theme song, written and recorded by

Jane Wiedlin Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician and singer, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of the new wave music, new wave band The The Go-Go's, Go-Go's. She has also had a successful ...

The Go-Go's The Go-Go's are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belind ...

Name

The use of ''gay'' in the company name refers both to the

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

of co-founders Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff and to its older, seldom-used definition, "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." Quint and Petroff were not seeking to be hyper-political with the name; they want their customers to interpret it however they want.

History

Doug Quint was a freelance classical

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

ist looking for a secondary occupation in the summer off-season. A

flautist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

friend had been operating an ice cream truck of her own and suggested that Quint do the same. On June 13, 2009, the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck began operations at Brooklyn Pride in

Prospect Park, Brooklyn Prospect Park is an urban park in Brooklyn, New York City. The park is situated between the neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, and Windsor Terrace, and is adjacent to the Brooklyn Museum, Gran ...

. The ice cream truck itself has been dormant since 2011, with only occasional appearances for major events. BGIC East Village

After two years of operating a roving truck, Quint and Petroff opened their first store – the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, in New York's East Village. Approximately a year later, they opened a second location in the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, 14th Street (Manhattan ...

. A

pop-up store Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to catch onto a fad or scheduled e ...

opened in the

Ace Hotel Ace Hotel is a chain of hotels headquartered in Los Angeles and New York City. Founded in 1999 in Seattle, it operates hotels primarily in the United States, with locations in Portland, Oregon; Brooklyn, New York City; Palm Springs, California; ...

in Los Angeles in late 2014. A Philadelphia location opened in 2015 at the corner of

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and South Broad Streets. The pair co-authored a book, titled ''Big Gay Ice Cream: Saucy Stories & Frozen Treats: Going All the Way with Ice Cream'', with an introduction by

Anthony Bourdain Anthony Michael Bourdain (; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian who starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition. Bourdai ...

, released in 2015. The business relies on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

instead of traditional advertising, in order to connect directly with its customers. Quint and Petroff also frequently blog about their experiences. In 2017, Big Gay Ice Cream started selling packaged pints of "hard" ice cream in convenience stores and grocery stores.

References

External links

* Officia
website
{{Authority control Food production companies based in New York City Food retailers of the United States Ice cream parlors in the United States Ice cream vans Restaurants established in 2009 2009 establishments in New York City American companies established in 2009

Name

History

See also

References

External links