Ice Cream pioneer passes

Raise your Jamoca Almond Fudge in honor of Irvine Robbins, co-founder of Baskin-Robbins. Valerie Nelson’s article in the LA Times chronicles Robbins’ contributions to ice cream fans everywhere.

Robbins opened his ice cream shop, Snowbird, in Glendale after leaving the Army in 1945. Mr. Baskin started his own shop, Burton’s, in Pasadena in 1946. The two became business partners and by 1948 they had 8 shops between them (5 Snowbirds and 3 Burton’s). In 1953, they rebranded the company as Baskin-Robbins and introduced the concept of 31 flavors (not to be confused with 21 Choices, another great Pasadena spot).

What really grabbed me about the article was Robbins’ focus on innovative flavors. When the Dodgers moved to LA, Baskin-Robbins celebrated with Baseball Nut, Lunar Cheesecake marked the ‘69 moon landing, etc… Being a longtime Gold Medal Ribbon fan, I am grateful for the creation of new flavors and for convincing Americans to expand their ice cream tastes. Of course, this innovation comes with its share of ill-fated experiments. I had never heard before that Baskin-Robbins attempted Lox & Bagel and Ketchup ice creams. Barf. Then again, I guess you can get garlic ice cream at The Stinking Rose, so to each their own.

This weekend I think I’ll celebrate Irvine Robbins’ life with a scoop of Gold Medal Ribbon. Without Mr. Robbins, we wouldn’t have the abundant ice cream choices from numerous companies that we have today. Who knows- maybe we wouldn’t have modern-day classics like Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream.

This entry was posted on May 7, 2008 at 18:22 and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.