Flashback to 2011, when the Big Gay Ice Cream shop opened on 7th Street; and today's current legal battle

Labor Day 2011 saw the grand opening of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. 

It was a memorable shitshow with an entertainment lineup that featured an all-bassoon band, Bea Arthur lookalikes, Roller Derby stars and Anthony Bourdain dressed as a priest blessing the shop.

This was the very first storefront for the business that started with an ice cream truck. In the years that followed, the good-natured brand grew in popularity, and co-founders Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff (seen above in 2011) authored a cookbook on frozen treats, opened multiple outposts and launched a pint-sized product line in grocery stores. 

Today, however, just one shop remains in business ... and the future of the brand is in jeopardy. (The EV location never reopened after the Pause of 2020.)

This past week, The New York Times reported on a story we'll continue to follow:

On Friday, a founder and partner, Doug Quint, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court accusing another partner, Jon Chapski, of mismanaging the company and fraudulently collecting government loans during the pandemic.

And...

During the pandemic, though, the good vibes evaporated. Today, after multiple missteps, unpaid debts and evictions, the company's future is murky. Mr. Quint is working in a Walgreens pharmacy in Pittsfield, Maine, where he grew up. Mr. Petroff works in human resources for a New York restaurant chain.

Both men say they hope to pull the company back from the brink and continue without Mr. Chapski, whom they hired as a financial adviser in 2011 and made a partner in 2016. The founders continued to develop new products and marketing efforts, but Mr. Chapski effectively ran the business.

Mr. Quint is seeking at least $4 million, claiming damages arising from breach of contract, fiduciary irresponsibility and "willful misconduct" by Mr. Chapski. (Mr. Petroff, who like Mr. Quint still retains a 35 percent ownership stake, has declined to be a party to the suit, citing the expense of legal representation, but said Mr. Quint had his "full support.")

In his lawsuit, Mr. Quint accuses Mr. Chapski of failing to pay landlords, vendors and the I.R.S.; concealing legal proceedings and business moves from him and Mr. Petroff; and collecting government loans during the pandemic while the stores remained closed and employees went unpaid. Public records show that the four New York City stores — each of which is a separate limited-liability corporation — received loans totaling more than $500,000.

Through a spokesperson, Chapski told the Times he'd respond to the lawsuit "when appropriate."

In an email to us over the weekend, Quint referred to the current situation as a "disaster." 

Big Gay Ice Cream founders say goodbye to their very first shop

Big Gay Ice Cream co-founders Doug Quint (above left) and Bryan Petroff (above right) shared this message with us yesterday about the closure of their Seventh Street shop, as reported yesterday ...

With great sadness but with no regrets, Bryan and I decided that the time came for Big Gay Ice Cream to close our East Village location. 

125 East Seventh Street is where Big Gay Ice Cream became more than just our overblown hobby. Big Gay Ice Cream Truck a grew into a legitimate hit and in 2011 we decided that it was supposed to be what we did with our lives. 

We signed the lease, quit our day jobs, and built ourselves a perfectly imperfect hole-in-the-wall soft serve joint. I would work a late night in the ice cream truck, staying out long enough to be able to afford a prep sink the next day so in a way every Big Gay Ice Cream Truck customer helped build that place.

For a decade the shop hummed along and put tens of thousands of Salty Pimps in the hands of folks from Tierra Del Fuego to Lapland. It made many people, including us, very happy. 

We always knew that if we ever opened a shop it would be in the East Village. It had to be. In its heyday that section of East Seventh was one of the hottest food blocks in the city — even The New York Times singled it out. We wanted to be right there with Caracas, Luke’s Lobster, Porchetta, Butter Lane and Pylos. Damn, that block had energy and we loved it.  

The batteries have gone a bit dim on that street. The empty storefronts (kept vacant by landlords working tax breaks) that plague the city have settled in. It ain’t what it was. 

We decided that even if the shop managed to make it through “the COVID thing” it would never truly recover. We need to be able to jam customers in during the summer to make enough money to get us through the off season. That won’t work anymore. Knowing that the usual fall semester student rush won’t be coming this year we have decided to call it. 

Thank you all for making wonderful memories at our first shop and thank you to the East Village for having us. We’re going to “keep on keeping on” at our other locations and hope to open another East Village or Lower East Side location before too long. 

Goodbye East Seventh. So long and thanks for all the calories.

Photo from 2011

The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop will not be reopening on 7th Street

A lot of people have pointed this out in recent days: The for-rent sign in the front window of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Co-founder Doug Quint confirmed the closure, though didn't offer any other immediate comment. [Updated: Read their farewell-to-Seventh-Street message here.]

This outpost had been closed since the PAUSE went into effect last March ... the Big Gay locations in the West Village and UWS did reopen.

The popular shop opened in September 2011 with a memorable array of entertainment, including an all-bassoon band, Bea Arthur lookalikes and Anthony Bourdain dressed as a priest blessing the shop. 

This was the very first location for the business that started with an ice cream truck. Since then, Quint and co-founder Bryan Petroff authored a cookbook on frozen treats and launched a pint-sized product line in grocery stores. 

Photo by Steven

[Updated] West Village restaurant now selling 'Big STRAIGHT ice cream'

[Photo via @DemandaDahling]

Now available at Gallo Nero, an Italian restaurant at 95 Seventh Ave. South. … right near the West Village location of Big Gay Ice Cream…

Head to Twitter for some reaction to this.

@biggayicecream @GalloNeroNYC Vanilla with some homophobia on the side?

— Melissa Marks-Shih (@mmscooks) September 14, 2014

Big Gay Ice Cream celebrated its third anniversary in the East Village on Sept. 3.

Updated to note that the sign is at the West Village location, not the Midtown address.

Updated 9-17

Gothamist talks to the restaurant owner.

"The chef was making his own ice cream, straight ice cream right from his kitchen, like, he didn't buy the ice cream, he was making his own," Besim Kukaj said, explaining why Gallo Nero posted a sign that advertised "Big STRAIGHT Ice Cream" across the street from Big Gay Ice Cream's second location on Grove Street. "I love gay people, I have nothing against gay people."

The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop raising money today for the Bea Arthur Residence

[File photo]

As previously reported, the Ali Forney Center will develop housing for up to 18 homeless LGBT youth at 222 E. 13th St., which will be formally named the Bea Arthur Residence.

Today, the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop is raising money for Ali Forney and Bea Arthur ... (Co-owners Doug and Bryan are longtime fans of both... they even named a cone for Bea Arthur.)

So... to the Big Gay Ice Cream blog:

We are proclaiming Friday, September 14 “Golden Girls Day” at our shop. That day marks the 27th (!!!!) anniversary of the show’s premier. God, don’t you wish shoulder pads would finally come back?

Come by our shop that day if you can — we’ll be collecting money for the Bea Arthur Residence. Here's how you can give:

- Pick up a Bea Arthur cone. 100% of the proceeds from every Bea Arthur cone sold will go to Ali Fornay

When you screw around with a motorcycle in front of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop

From the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop Facebook page ... on an incident that happened last evening at the shop on Seventh Street:

A very strange kid came into the shop. Eventually he bought a cone, then he asked "who's motorcycle is parked in front of your shop?" We told him it belongs to a guy upstairs, and he said "yeah, I need to work on that bike, so just ignore me."

The dude who owns the bike is obsessive — shines it, polishes it, and no one ever touches it. The kid uncovered the bike and started to screw with it, so we called 911. He took off, but the cops showed up and our staffer Kayla went off in their car to look for the dude. She got him!

Today in photos of bassoon players performing outside ice cream shops on Seventh Street

At the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. Per their Twitter account: "I'm not sure why, but we've got two of NYC's best bassoonists (McCracken and Timmerman) playing outside the shop!"

And from Bride of 7th...

There was a line for the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop pretty much all weekend long

At least when we looked. Here's a photo from last night. They opened on Saturday. You may have heard about it. Anyway, someone finally topped "The Help" at the weekend box office.

A Big Gay Ice Cream opening with drag queens and roller derby girls

Today at noon, a Trader Joe's-like line formed for the good humor grand opening of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop on Seventh Street... and Dave on 7th was there...

And a little video action...

Big Gay Ice Cream Shop opens Saturday at noon

On Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. Via Twitter.

Previously.

How close is the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop from announcing its opening date on Seventh Street?

Follow them on Twitter, where I took this. Borrowed this.

Previously.

The Department of Health is ready for the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop

The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop is one of notable yet-to-open East Village food shops/restaurants — including Tompkins Square Bagels and The Cardinal — to have a blank page on the DOH website. Apparently the DOH is just waiting to stop by! Make sure you have those food allergy information posters conspicuously posted!

[Updated] LES Jewels has already colonized the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop

This morning on Seventh Street... under the shelter of the new awning. Photo by @beatsforlyfe.

Oh no word yet on an opening date... but the (ice cream?) machinery should arrive tomorrow.

And now, your Big Gay Ice Cream Shop awning on Seventh Street

Unveiled yesterday. Designed by Jason O'Malley. Photo via @biggayicecream.

Big Gay Ice Cream signage spotted on Seventh Street

EV Grieve reader Elizabeth Frayer of New York Natives spotted signage of the coming-soon Big Gay Ice Cream shop on Seventh Street in the former Xoom space...

Still no official opening date, though...

Meanwhile, a look inside the shop via the Big Gay Ice Cream Facebook page... which includes a mural (in progress here) by Sam Simon...

No opening day set for the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop on Seventh Street

Last month, Serious Eats reported that the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck is opening a brick-and-mortar shop at the former Xoom space on Seventh Street.

In a video interview posted yesterday at The Amateur Gourmet, Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff discussed the Big Gay Ice Cream Empire, which includes a book next summer.

At about the 1:25 mark, Quint tells Adam Roberts that the space is coming along. But! How about an opening date? "It opens when it's ready to be opened," he said. "We want to learn how to run the store properly before we open. So we aren't going to set a date."

And, well, here's the whole interview ...

Someone's In The Kitchen With...Doug Quint & Bryan Petroff (from The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck) from Adam Roberts on Vimeo.