It's-It Ice Cream is an ice cream

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

and

distributor A distributor is an electric and mechanical device used in the ignition system of older spark-ignition engines. The distributor's main function is to route electricity from the ignition coil to each spark plug at the correct time. Design ...

since 1928, based in

Burlingame, California Burlingame () is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is known for its ...

. The company is best known for the popular It's-It

ice cream sandwich An ice cream sandwich is a frozen dessert consisting of ice cream between two biscuits, wafers, soft cookies, or other baked goods. The ingredients are different around the world, with Ireland using wafers and the United States commonly using c ...

, which is a scoop of ice cream sandwiched between two oatmeal cookies and dipped in dark chocolate. The original vanilla It's-It has been available in additional flavors since the 1980s.

History

The It's-It was invented in 1928 by George Whitney, one of the original business owners when San Francisco's Playland at the Beach opened across the

Great Highway The Great Highway is a road located on the West Side of San Francisco that forms the city's western edge along the Pacific coast. Built in 1929, it runs for approximately next to Ocean Beach. Its southern end is at Skyline Boulevard ( Sta ...

from Ocean Beach on the city's

West Side West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham ...

One version of the name's origins is that Whitney was experimenting and cried out "It's-It!" when he hit on the combination of a sandwich of vanilla ice cream inside two oatmeal cookies, covered in chocolate. Another version is that he heard someone answer the question which cow had won a cow race that day (a tradition at Playland); the cow's name was It. For nearly forty-five years, until Playland was demolished in 1972, the It's-It was available only at Whitney's shop. After Playland closed, the It's-It name was passed to George Mavros, who sold the ice cream sandwiches at another location near Ocean Beach. In 1974, the Shamieh brothers, and their brothers-in law, A.L. McDow and Isa Zaru, bought the It's-It business. They mechanized production, first at a facility on 11th Street in downtown San Francisco, moving to the current factory in Burlingame in 1976. The company's products are now sold in supermarkets and

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lotter ...

s. Chocolate, strawberry, mint and cappuccino flavors were added in the 1980s and green tea in 2016; pumpkin is also available. The company has also added other ice cream products, including the "Super Sundae", the "Big Daddy", the "Super Cone", and the "Chips It".

References

External links

{{Commons category
It's-It Ice Cream Company Official Website

Ice cream brands Companies based in Burlingame, California Culture of California Cuisine of the Western United States Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Sandwich cookies Dairy products companies in California