The Ice Cream Truck Kingpins Of Southern California

Is there anything better than hearing the sound of an ice cream truck approaching? Today we’re bringing you two stories of ice cream trucks, past and present. First, Sporkful managing producer Emma Morgenstern tells the tale of her great-uncles, who owned a fleet of trucks starting in the 1940s — complete with sibling rivalries, California dreaming, and the exact right speed to drive a truck to maximize profits.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dan Pashman?

  As someone who has been lucky enough to go to Napa Valley, I can tell you it's everything people say it is. Beautiful scenery, quaint, beautiful towns, and phenomenal food and drink everywhere you go. I don't even know that much about wine, but I know that every glass of wine I had in Napa Valley was excellent. I mean, there's no bad glass of wine and no bad meal. Choose between hundreds of wineries, tasting rooms, and chef-led restaurants from a low-key lunch on a vineyard terrace to a full tasting menu paired by the winemaker. Plan your trip at visitnapavalley.com.

• 0:32Dan Pashman?

  I grew up on Lando Lakes cheese. I still remember going to the supermarket deli counter with my mom and her ordering Lando Lakes American cheese. And now Lando Lakes cheese and butter are a huge part of my home. There are so many easy weeknight recipes using Lando Lakes cheese and butter that bring delicious restaurant taste right to your table. From chicken parm to weeknight shrimp pad Thai, Lando Lakes has plenty of quick dishes that'll have the whole dinner table talking. Visit landolakes.com/reцепes/collection for easy weeknight dinners.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Candy Center Crunch, that was a favorite. It's like a vanilla bar with chocolate coating outside.

• 1:17Dan Pashman?

  It's got a hard chocolate in the center.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's got like a Hershey, like, you know, chocolate center.

• 1:20Dan Pashman?

  I gotta say, that one to me is a bit of a gimmick. I don't love that one. Cause it's like, well, because the center chocolate is too hard and you have to bite so hard through it, that like, either you have to finish all the ice cream before, because if you start trying to bite through it while you still have ice cream on the pop, you're gonna push the ice cream everywhere. Cause you have to bite too hard to get through the chocolate. If you wait until you've eaten all the ice cream to bite through the hardened chocolate center, yes, you won't spread ice cream everywhere, but now you're just eating the chocolate without the ice cream. And to me, that's not that great.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  Dad, I've been doing this job for 10 years and I've never had anyone explain a situation like this, like you. I didn't think you'd be this much of an ice cream fanatic. It just blew my mind right now.

• 2:02Dan Pashman?

  This is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. Real quick note here at the top, last week I told you that one spot had opened up in my pasta tour of Italy this fall. Well, I talked to my friends at Culinary Backstreets who run the tour, and they were able to open up an additional slots. And now we have room for a solo traveler or a couple. It's such a special trip. We go to places the generic tours don't go to. If you're on the fence, I say you do it. Get details and register now at culinarybackstreets.com/sporkful. Okay, here we go. I want to paint a picture for you. It's a hot summer afternoon. You're at the beach or lake or pool or park. The sun is beating down. Then you hear a very

• 2:46Dan Pashman?

  faint sound in the distance. Is that wind chimes? It grows louder. You cock your head and turn one ear towards the source, concentrating to try to hear better. It grows louder and soon, it's unmistakable. It's definitely the sound of an ice cream truck. Sometimes though, it starts getting quiet again. Truck turns in a different direction. But sometimes, in those very special moments, it keeps getting louder and louder. Children start jumping out of the water. Parents reach for their wallets and bouncing around the corner comes a hulking white jalopy of joy. Let's see how long it takes for the kids to come running from the backyard.

• 3:24Speaker 02

  What is the reason to be interviewed?

• 3:27Dan Pashman?

  I'm doing a story about ice cream.

• 3:28Speaker 02

  Why?

• 3:29Dan Pashman?

  Cause ice cream trucks are fun.

• 3:31Speaker 02

  Is it for free?

• 3:33Dan Pashman?

  For you, yes.

• 3:34Speaker 02

  Yay!

• 3:35Dan Pashman?

  Put your wallet away, Maggie.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  I don't, I didn't bring my wallet.

• 3:39Dan Pashman?

  Oh, good. All right.

• 3:40Speaker 02

  I still have a wallet.

• 3:42Dan Pashman?

  All right. Declan, what do you think? What's your order gonna be?

• 3:45Speaker 02

  I mean, I'm probably gonna have like a root beer float.

• 3:47Dan Pashman?

  What are you gonna get?

• 3:48Speaker 02

  I'm gonna get like a normal chocolate.

• 3:50Dan Pashman?

  Just chocolate ice cream? Nothing on top? Sprinkles?

• 3:54Speaker 02

  Maybe, yeah.

• 3:55Dan Pashman?

  Are you looking, were you looking back to see if your parents were here to tell you if you can't get something?

• 3:58Speaker 02

  If I can't, I can't.

• 3:59Dan Pashman?

  Oh, all right. Well, just, I won't tell them. All right. Is there anything better than that? The day I don't get excited about the arrival of an ice cream truck, you can put me on an iceberg and push me out to sea. This week on the show, we're bringing you two stories about ice cream trucks. Later on, I'll talk with an ice cream truck driver about the secrets of the trade, and I'll pitch him some new Sunday ideas I've been working on. But for our first story, I want to bring in our managing producer, Emma Morgenstern. Hey, Emma.

• 4:27Speaker 03

  Hey, Dan.

• 4:28Dan Pashman?

  So what do you got for us?

• 4:29Speaker 03

  Well, when you first mentioned that you wanted to do an ice cream truck episode, I was like, I gotta tell you, my family was really in the ice cream truck business. They were basically the kingpins of ice cream trucks in Southern California.

• 4:42Dan Pashman?

  How have you waited this long? This, like, you've been working on this show for like six and a half years, right?

• 4:48Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 4:48Dan Pashman?

  This should have been like your job interview. This is job interview material, Emma.

• 4:52Speaker 03

  That's true. I have a long lineage of ice cream truck makers.

• 4:55Dan Pashman?

  You would have been hired on the spot.

• 4:59Dan Pashman?

  So why, why didn't you talk more about this sooner?

• 5:02Speaker 03

  Well, part of it is that I just didn't really know that much about this part of my family. I knew that they existed, that they were in the ice cream truck business, but I didn't really know much about it.

• 5:11Dan Pashman?

  All right. So, so tell me the story.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  So the ice cream guys were five brothers. They're my great uncles on my mom's side. They're all gone now. The last one died in 2018. And you're gonna hear a lot of names in this story, but two of these brothers are the ones that you need to keep track of. Hermy and Dan Trop.

• 5:27Dan Pashman?

  Hermy and Dan, got it.

• 5:29Speaker 03

  So let me start by taking you back more than a century to a tiny town in upstate New York called Granville. It's right near the Vermont border. Kids go swimming in the slate quarry in the summers. They jump over barrels on ice gates in the freezing cold winters. This is where all of the Trop siblings are born. Dan and Hermy are born in the same year, 1917, 11 months apart.

• 5:51Speaker 04

  Talk about sibling rivalries. Oh, man. Quick story.

• 5:55Speaker 03

  This is Phil Trop, who's in his 70s now. He's Hermy's son.

• 5:58Speaker 04

  My Uncle Dan was a terrific athlete. My father was okay, but my Uncle Dan was high-end athlete. So they're playing an exhibition football game in high school. And my Uncle Dan is running wide open for a touchdown. My father jumped off the sideline and tackled him.

• 6:18Speaker 03

  Wow. This is the 1930s, when brothers who are five foot six can be football stars.

• 6:23Dan Pashman?

  Right. This is how I ended up with a great, great uncle in the basketball Hall of Fame.

• 6:27Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 6:30Dan Pashman?

  All right. So 1930s, they're in high school, and then get to the 40s and what happens?

• 6:34Speaker 03

  So in the 40s, the US enters World War II. Dan and Hermy both enlist and they both serve in the Pacific. After the war, Dan comes home, he gets married. His new brother-in-law is living in California and he's in the ice cream business. He tells Dan to move out there. He'll get him set up. So that's what Dan and his new wife do. They move to San Bernardino in 1946.

• 6:56Dan Pashman?

  And I know like, that's right at the beginning of a massive westward move among the American population. I mean, in the, in the 25 years after World War II, the population of California nearly tripled.

• 7:08Speaker 03

  Right.

• 7:08Dan Pashman?

  And I'm a sports fan, so I put this in the context of like, there were no professional baseball teams in California when Dan moved out there. 11 years later, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had both moved to California. The Dodgers to LA, the Giants to San Francisco.

• 7:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:22Dan Pashman?

  So your great uncle Dan is part of this huge rush of people moving to California, this new land of opportunity. It's, you know, a century earlier, there was a gold rush, brought people to California with pickaxes.

• 7:32Speaker 03

  Right. And Uncle Dan went in 1946 with an ice cream scoop.

• 7:39Speaker 03

  So when Dan gets out to California, he borrows $2,000 to cover his startup costs and uses it to buy push carts and scooters. He's pushing the cart and selling the ice cream himself in those early years. Eventually, he decides he needs to upgrade to trucks.

• 7:54Speaker 04

  Then he goes to the bank, he gets, he's telling me this story. He borrows money for three trucks.

• 7:59Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 7:59Speaker 04

  All right. He tells me, he says, you know, I bought these three trucks and after a couple of months, I realized I can't make any money with three trucks. But I hadn't made any payments on them. I says, what'd you do? He says, I go, I went to the bank and I told them I can't make money with three trucks. They gotta lend me enough money to buy three more. So I said, what'd they do? He says, they lent me the money to buy three more. That's how he built the business. From the push carts to the three trucks to the next three, way up.

• 8:36Speaker 03

  Dan names his fledgling company Tropical Ice Cream, a play on his last name, Trop.

• 8:41Dan Pashman?

  Now, just to be clear, Emma, your uncle did not invent ice cream trucks.

• 8:45Speaker 03

  That's right. He did not.

• 8:47Dan Pashman?

  That would be even cooler.

• 8:48Speaker 03

  That would be, sorry. But the first ice cream trucks in America date back to the 1920s with good humor. And by the 40s and 50s, the industry is growing because of a few things that are happening at the time. First of all, there's this rising demand for ice cream. Ice cream has been around for centuries, but the first mass-produced ice cream only arrives in the 1920s. And even that is really only available in cities where there are ice cream vending machines or ice cream parlors.

• 9:14Dan Pashman?

  Right. Like, you know, you can't just buy ice cream at the store and bring it home and throw it in the freezer at this time because number one, people didn't sell frozen foods in the stores. And number two, people didn't have freezers at home to keep things frozen. Like, an ice box could keep things cold, but not reliably at a specific temperature.

• 9:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's right. So in 1937, things start to change with the invention of the first portable mechanical refrigerator. It's called the Thermoking. The prototype weighs more than a ton and costs today's equivalent of $700,000 to make.

• 9:46Dan Pashman?

  Oh my God. Crazy to think that like, now, like, I have a spare freezer in my basement.

• 9:54Dan Pashman?

  So, but this technology advances enough so that the armed forces start using mobile cooling units during World War II, both for medical reasons and for food. And one of those foods, ice cream. Okay. The Navy uses ice cream to boost morale among troops, even converting a barge into a floating ice cream factory, which sounds like my ideal kind of barge. And then, but then the troops return home with an even greater appetite for this sweet treat.

• 10:22Speaker 03

  And then post-war, the Thermoking completely transforms the way Americans eat because all of a sudden, food can be transported safely for much longer distances. That includes ice cream. It becomes easier to mass produce and distribute ice cream. But still, even into the 70s, most Americans don't have a freezer at home.

• 10:39Dan Pashman?

  I was born in 1977. Most people didn't have freezers, like when I was born?

• 10:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's like 30% of, or 35% had freezers and the rest did not.

• 10:50Dan Pashman?

  That's amazing.

• 10:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. And even if they did have a freezer, it was tiny. So you still don't really like keep an ice cream stash at home.

• 10:58Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 10:58Speaker 03

  So enter the ice cream truck delivering ice cold ice cream to your doorstep. And this is right when Uncle Dan is getting into the business in the 40s.

• 11:06Dan Pashman?

  Okay. So I understand the key characters. I get where we are in terms of ice cream history, American history, the rise of refrigeration, the move west and all that. Like clearly, it's an ideal time for Uncle Dan to be starting out. I'm gonna step back. Emma, you take it from here.

• 11:22Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  Let's skip ahead now to the early 1960s. Dan's been at it with tropical ice cream for 15 years and he's doing really well for himself. He owns all the ice cream trucks in San Bernardino. He successfully fights off a move by the city council to ban his trucks from playing music, which could have completely killed the business. He's taking in hundreds of thousands in revenue every year. At this point, Dan is the only one of the brothers on the West Coast, but he soon starts recruiting the others. First comes Mo, followed by Joe, who runs a plant in Santa Ana. Next comes Max, who sets up in San Diego. Four of the five brothers are living the California dream. Meanwhile, Hermy, Dan's younger rival, is still living in Granville, the small New York town where they all grew up.

• 12:10Speaker 03

  After the war, he'd taken over his father's wholesale produce business, and he's also doing pretty well. But his business partner is his brother-in-law, my grandfather. And while they like each other, they do not work well together. Periodically, Dan comes back to Granville to visit the family. And he takes every opportunity to show off how successful he is. Here's Hermy's son, Bob.

• 12:31Speaker 05

  He would brag about the amount of money he was making. And he'd brag to the newspaper, the Granville Sentinel.

• 12:39Speaker 03

  On October 22nd, 1964, splashed across the front page of the local paper is the headline, "Granville's Greatest and Youngest Millionaire." Never mind that Dan hasn't even lived in Granville for 20 years. The story has a picture of both Dan and Hermy. It plays up both businesses, says that the produce company is one of the biggest in the Northeast, and the ice cream company is the biggest in California. But there's only one millionaire referenced in the headline, and that's Dan. Hermy's doing well, but Dan is the star.

• 13:09Speaker 05

  He was the major domo of the ice cream business. And Dan was a narcissist, to say the least.

• 13:17Speaker 03

  A few years later, the oldest brother, Mo, announces he's retiring from the ice cream business. Here's Phil again.

• 13:23Speaker 04

  And Uncle Dan asked my father if he wanted to move to California. And my father, he was never afraid to take a chance, a little impulsive. And he figured, hey, look, I've been doing this for a long time, and I like to do something different.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  Hermy's ready to go, to be done with the produce business. And Phil is ready, too.

• 13:42Speaker 04

  I'm saying to myself, yay, I can't wait to get out of winter.

• 13:48Speaker 03

  So you were excited about the idea of moving?

• 13:50Speaker 04

  I was very excited about it because I used to watch the Rose Bowl in 80-degree weather when I'm sitting there at 10 below zero, snow on the ground. And I'm saying, wow, this is really great.

• 14:02Speaker 03

  Hermy sells his stake in the produce business. He buys a house in Pomona, California, and in August of 68, they hit the road.

• 14:09Speaker 04

  We got in the car and we, my sister Andrea, my brother Bob, my brother David, and our dog Pierre, in a 65 Cadillac DeVille. And yeah, we drove all the way from Granville to Pomona. And my father got to Salt Lake City. And he says to me, you know, Phil, I wonder if I made the right decision? And I said to him, Dad, it's kind of late to turn back now. We drove into California, and I'll never forget, because we got around San Bernardino. You couldn't see, the mountains were right there, Emma, you could not see them. It was smog, smoggy. And I'm saying, what the heck is this?

• 14:52Speaker 03

  What are your thoughts when you first get there, apart from the smog?

• 14:56Speaker 04

  How wide the streets were, it's totally different than, you know, a small town upstate New York. I was excited. I was real happy to be in California. And I've been happy since the day I've been here to be in California.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  Hermy and Dan are back living on the same coast for the first time in 20-plus years. And on top of that, they're now working together. Dan's been running this growing ice cream operation all these years, but Hermy has also been running a successful business, and he has his own approach.

• 15:25Speaker 04

  My father's only thing was, he didn't want my uncle meddling in the business. And the everyday operations is like, Dan, just let me do my thing, and you do your thing, and you want to come over and ask me questions, fine. And you come over to the house and visit, great. And go out, great. But when it comes to everyday things in the business, just let me do it.

• 15:46Speaker 03

  Most of the time, that works just fine. But Phil starts to notice how different his father is from Uncle Dan.

• 15:52Speaker 04

  My father, he'd go out to breakfast with a couple of his friends, and Uncle Dan would pop in once in a while. My father would say, Dan, you want anything to eat? And he'd say, no, I don't want anything to eat. He had a real deep voice. My father says, you sure? He says, yeah, I'm sure. My father was like me. When we ordered food, we planned on eating all of it. And we were lousy at sharing, okay? My father was similar. And he'd say, your Uncle Dan, every damn time I order stuff, he's got to pick the toast off my plate. And he says, he's so stinking cheap, he won't buy it. And even when I offered to buy it for him, he doesn't want it. But he'll sit there and he'll take my piece of toast, my piece of bacon, my...

• 16:37Speaker 04

  That was Uncle Dan, you know? He was a funny guy.

• 16:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:40Speaker 04

  He was a brilliant guy, smart businessman, but he was a little on the cheap side sometimes.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  Coming up, Phil and Bob share their secrets to driving an ice cream truck. And later, we turn to our second story, when Dan Pashman gets inside an ice cream truck on Long Island, and he attempts to convince the driver to add his patented sundae to the menu. Stick around.

• 17:11Dan Pashman?

  It's time to open up a can of advertisements. When you're cooking, ingredients matter, right? You use higher-quality ingredients, you usually get better results. And if you're listening to this show, you're probably the kind of person who puts some thought and effort into your ingredients. But ingredients don't just matter with food, they also matter with laundry detergent. Of course, the cleaning job needs to get done, the odors and stains have to be tackled, and I want to feel good about the detergent and the ingredients in it. Because remember, whatever's in your laundry detergent is essentially in your clothes, and then you're putting those clothes on, you want good stuff in there. And All Free Clear uses only essential ingredients. It's 100% free from dyes, perfumes, parabens, and irritating residues.

• 17:53Dan Pashman?

  Check out the label and see for yourself, it lists all the ingredients and what they do. We've been using it in my house, we're very happy with it. And let me tell you, family of four, two teenagers, we do a lot of laundry. So we have put All Free Clear to the test. It's a powerful clean that you can feel good about. All Free Clear is the number-one detergent brand recommended by dermatologists for sensitive skin. When it comes to laundry detergent, the choice is clear, All Free Clear. Pick up a bottle for your next laundry day. I grew up on Lando Lake's cheese. I still remember going to the supermarket deli counter with my mom and her ordering Lando Lake's American cheese. And now, Lando Lake's cheese and butter are a huge part of my home. There are so many easy weeknight recipes using Lando Lake's cheese and butter that bring delicious restaurant taste right to your table.

• 18:38Dan Pashman?

  From chicken parm to weeknight shrimp pad Thai, Lando Lake's has plenty of quick dishes that'll have the whole dinner table talking. Visit landolakes.com/reцепes/collection for easy weeknight dinners. Last year, right around this time, I got a new jacket from Quince, a lightweight fall jacket. And it has turned into my favorite jacket. And this is why you need a lightweight jacket, and probably a new one, because it's time to freshen up your look. You need a lightweight jacket from Quince because the beauty of a lightweight jacket is you can wear it in the early fall, you can wear it in the early spring, but also it goes over a sweater, over a sweatshirt. And then suddenly, your lightweight jacket is a great accessory for pretty much the whole winter. Bottom line, when the temperatures start to drop, Quince makes it easy to build on

• 19:21Dan Pashman?

  those everyday staples with versatile layers designed to keep you warm and comfortable all season long. They make elevated everyday essentials using premium materials and designs that are timeless, thoughtfully crafted, and made to be worn again and again. So find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns, now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was this porkful. It's the best way to support the show.

• 19:56Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back to The Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman. On last week's show, we get one person's experience on his decision to go on GLP1s. And we asked the question, is it possible to be on one and still love food? Jason Diamond is a food writer, and he did not take this decision lightly. He was worried that GLP1s might affect his relationship with food, and they did, but not in the way he expected. He'd always seen food as a source of pleasure, but by going on GLP1s, he saw how much food was connected to his anxiety.

• 20:21Speaker 06

  Food anxiety is very real. I had never realized how bad I had it. And growing up around a lot of immigrants, you try to waste food around them. They'll smack you. It wasn't like, eat your this. It was like smack, like you eat that. I mean, and now I know that really had a real big effect on me.

• 20:42Dan Pashman?

  That episode's up where he got this one. Check it out. Okay, back now to Sporkful managing producer Emma Morgenstern and her family's story of heading west to seek their fortune in ice cream trucks.

• 20:53Speaker 03

  When Hermy arrives in California, he takes over the Pomona plant to start. Phil and Bob work for him driving trucks in the weekend and during school breaks. When you think of ice cream trucks today, some of them use a generator to actively run a freezer. But Hermy's ice cream trucks in the 60s and 70s don't have that. Instead, the drivers plug in the trucks at night, which gets the freezer compartment nice and cold. And then in the morning, they load up all the ice cream and lay dry ice over it, which keeps it cold while they're out for the day. There's no power going to the trucks while they're on the road. Also, Hermy's trucks are all hop outs, meaning the driver has to hop out of the truck and go around back to open up the freezer compartment. Then, Hermy has the idea to switch from trucks to vans,

• 21:37Speaker 03

  which is actually a bigger deal than it sounds like.

• 21:39Speaker 05

  My dad was the first one of the trucks to buy vans. And he's actually, I mean, he got everybody into it. So he called for me. He would go to a lot of post office auctions and he would buy those real cheap. We would paint them, fix them up. Or anytime we were driving around and he saw a van for sale, he'd stop, say, oh, let's take a look.

• 22:01Speaker 04

  Some were right-hand drive and some were conventional left-hand drive. And we would buy freezers that were like about nine or 10 feet long and about four or five feet wide. Then we had a window on the side that you slide open, slide shut. That really revolutionized and increased the amount of business by a ton, a ton.

• 22:23Speaker 03

  The window means you don't have to leave the vehicle to start selling. You just pull up, slide open the window from the inside, and the cash starts flowing. Also, Phil says the window allows them to stock candy, popcorn, other things like that that don't require a freezer.

• 22:36Speaker 04

  So instead of doing $60, $80 a day, all of a sudden you're doing 120, 140, 150. Probably within three years, two or three years, we had 60 of those type of trucks.

• 22:47Speaker 03

  So tell me about driving an ice cream truck. Like, what was that like for you?

• 22:52Speaker 04

  There's an art to driving an ice cream truck, okay?

• 22:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I can tell.

• 22:56Speaker 04

  I figured out that seven miles an hour was about the right speed to drive.

• 23:00Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 23:01Speaker 04

  But five was too slow and 10 was way too fast.

• 23:05Speaker 05

  Usually, if you have a really good area and a slower area, you do the slower one between like 3 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. And the good areas, you had to make sure you did those after dinner.

• 23:18Speaker 04

  You'd ask the kids what they want. Some of them knew right away. Other ones would sit there and just stare at the menu. And you kind of have to help them a little bit because, you know, I can't stand there.

• 23:32Speaker 03

  Phil and Bob also told me that wealthy neighborhoods were actually the worst for ice cream trucks. Those people already had fully stocked freezers. Why would the kids need to run outside for ice cream? The poorer the neighborhood, the better they did.

• 23:44Speaker 05

  I mean, if I told you the prices back then.

• 23:48Speaker 03

  Give me a sample. What were the prices?

• 23:51Speaker 05

  The highest price was a dollar for a pint. And the cheapest was seven cents for a popsicle. Most of the stuff was sold for like 10 cents, 15 cents, 25 cents. I paid for college, just working 10 weeks during the summer.

• 24:10Speaker 03

  Granted, college was a hell of a lot cheaper back then. And Phil and Bob made a higher commission than the average driver because they were the boss's kids. But it's not all fun in the sun. Drivers sometimes get robbed for the cash that they have in the truck. Hermy has to keep a guard dog at the plant because of the drivers coming back to settle up at the end of the night. By the late 70s, Phil and Bob have both graduated college and are working for their father full-time, not driving trucks anymore, but in the office. Did he want you to go into the business or it just?

• 24:42Speaker 05

  It was pretty much implied, yeah.

• 24:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. But just as the new generation is getting its footing, the business is changing. Instead of a company like Tropical employing the drivers and paying commission, they move towards a model where the drivers are independent. So the drivers own their own trucks and they buy the product from Tropical. This is in part because of changes in liability laws that made it riskier for a company to own a whole fleet of trucks. Still, Phil and Bob are doing okay managing a couple of different plants. Phil takes over a new one and builds it up, making it more and more successful.

• 25:15Speaker 04

  I said to myself, at this point, I'm 29 years old. Either I gotta own something or I've gotta get out. So I walk into my father, my uncle. You always had to catch them together, all right? Because if you didn't, you tell one one thing, you tell the other one another thing, and that story comes, wouldn't jive if the two of them then got together later on. So I walk into the office, I said to him, I says, you know, I might want to buy that El Monte place, but you're gonna have to lend me the money or give me a time to pay for it. And they said, well, we don't think so. And I said to them, okay, then I'm giving you my notice.

• 26:00Speaker 04

  What the hell do you think you can do?

• 26:02Speaker 03

  Who said that, your father or Dan?

• 26:04Speaker 04

  The two of them, almost in a chorus. All right. My uncle Dan more than my father.

• 26:09Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 26:10Speaker 04

  And I'm saying right there, well, I don't know what, but it won't be this.

• 26:15Speaker 03

  How did that feel for you?

• 26:17Speaker 04

  Well, hurt a little bit, but I'm pretty competitive. Hopefully, all right, kind of runs us, you know? I said to myself, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but you gotta believe one thing, I'll be successful at it.

• 26:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:30Speaker 04

  I worked for 42 years, I was unemployed for two days.

• 26:34Speaker 03

  Remember, Phil's the one who said he never regretted moving to California. Things worked out well for him. Bob had a bit of a different story. When Hermy retired in 79, Bob wanted to buy him out, but he didn't have the money to do it. He thinks Hermy might have let him get in for cheap, but Uncle Dan wouldn't cut him a deal. So Bob left. But a few years later, he came back. This time, he was working for Dan's son. And that's where he spent the rest of his career.

• 27:00Speaker 05

  It was the biggest mistake of my life.

• 27:02Speaker 03

  Okay, why do you say that?

• 27:04Speaker 05

  Because the ice cream business was, it wasn't a place where you're gonna get wealthy. And, you know, back when my dad bought the place, much cheaper times, but, you know, he made, he made okay money for himself. Didn't have to pay a lot of tax, you know? It was easier. But when I came around, I wasn't making much.

• 27:28Speaker 03

  Bob never owned any part of the ice cream business. He retired in 2017, and he was the last truck to work in ice cream. As for Dan, he told The Granville Paper in 1980 that he'd, quote, "retired on a secret amount, but it's six figures in any case." He claimed that his was the largest independent ice cream truck company in the country, saying that at one point, he had 400 trucks. Elsewhere, I read it was 600. Phil told me that all of this was probably embellished. After Hermy and Dan retired, The Granville Paper continued to run lots of items about the brothers living it up in their golden years out in California. According to the paper, anyone who visited them out west was sure to see a good time. And that's the Hermy I remember.

• 28:11Speaker 03

  I met him many times when I'd visit California as a kid. He was a short guy with white curly hair and glasses. He was always telling a story, laughing and kidding around. Apparently, he was also an excellent ballroom dancer. He died in 2003. Dan outlived Hermy by 15 years, dying just before he turned 101. I don't remember ever meeting him.

• 28:32Speaker 04

  Uncle Dan also told me one day that he never made any money in any place that wasn't run by a relative. He said the other guys would steal too much from him. Yeah, he was a character. Because, you know, they were brothers and they complained about this one and that one. But if it hadn't been for Uncle Dan, none of them would have had the life they had out here in California. And for that, I'm thoroughly grateful to him, let me tell you.

• 29:06Speaker 03

  I came into this story with a pretty dim view of family businesses. On the other side of my family, my dad and his parents were in business together for decades, and it's caused some tension in the family. You can't shut the work part of your brain off when you're at home, and you can't get a break from your family when sometimes you need it. But what I've been reminded of is that family members go into business together with good intentions. Usually, you do want your family to succeed. Bringing them into the business can be a way to express that. An imperfect way, sure. As messy as a blue raspberry popsicle on a 95-degree day.

• 29:46Dan Pashman?

  That's Sporkful managing producer Emma Morgenstern. Coming up, I meet a modern-day ice cream man, my ice cream man, and I suggest a couple new sundaes for him to put on the menu. That's after the break. Stick around.

• 30:05Dan Pashman?

  And now a delicious word from our sponsors. It's very good.

• 30:11Dan Pashman?

  Boar's Head brings to the deli the taste of deep fried turkey. Look, whether or not you've had deep fried turkey, I think you can probably understand that it's amazing. But making it is also a massive production. That's why Boar's Head now presents the Friar's Turkey Breast. One bite and flavor takes over. Perfectly seasoned, deliciously golden fried. A backyard tradition available at the deli only from Boar's Head. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at your local Boar's Head deli. Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905. I grew up on Lando Lakes cheese. I still remember going to the supermarket deli counter with my mom and her ordering Lando Lakes American cheese. And now Lando Lakes cheese and butter are a huge part of my home. There are so many easy weeknight recipes using Lando Lakes cheese and butter that bring delicious restaurant taste

• 30:57Dan Pashman?

  right to your table. From chicken parm to weeknight shrimp pad Thai, Lando Lakes has plenty of quick dishes that'll have the whole dinner table talking. Visit landolakes.com/recipes/collection for easy weeknight dinners.

• 31:10Speaker 07

  Confidence, it's listening to your gut. It's moving forward even when the path ahead is unclear. For nearly 160 years, Pacific Life has helped people keep their promises, building confidence for generations. Whether you're confident in your financial future or just beginning to envision it, we're here to help. Ask a financial professional how. Pacific Life, the power of a promise. Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska. And in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona.

• 31:50Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back. So Emma's family was getting into the ice cream truck biz when it was still a relatively new industry. Those trucks only sold ice cream bars and pops. But these days with better technology and the ability to run a freezer on the go, many trucks do both the packaged frozen treats and soft serve, including the trucks owned by this guy.

• 32:08Speaker 01

  Hi, my name is Connor Hallis. I'm the owner of Hallis Ice Cream.

• 32:12Dan Pashman?

  Connor serves my local area on Long Island. On a recent hot day, I met him in his truck before he set off to start selling. Can we go inside?

• 32:19Speaker 01

  Of course, yeah.

• 32:19Dan Pashman?

  I've never been inside an ice cream truck.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  It's a first for everything.

• 32:22Dan Pashman?

  Yeah. Wow, this is, this is very exciting.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, just be careful.

• 32:29Dan Pashman?

  Well, I mean, there's more space in here than when you're on the street looking up at you.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  No, yeah, yeah.

• 32:34Dan Pashman?

  I mean, it's not exactly spacious, but like, there's a little more operating room in here than I would have thought. Are you aware Connor that you are kind of a local celebrity?

• 32:42Speaker 01

  I don't like to say that. I like to humble myself, but I try not to, you know, talk about that. But I keep it to myself.

• 32:49Dan Pashman?

  In other words, yes, he is aware. I asked my daughter Becky and her friend Daniella what they think of Connor.

• 32:55Speaker 02

  Connor is the GOAT. When you see an ice cream truck coming to the beach and it's not Connor, you're like, what the heck is happening? This, I'm not eating this. I don't trust it if it's not Connor made.

• 33:07Dan Pashman?

  When I was a kid, the ice cream truck would drive around on a route and if you heard it, you ran outside. So my interactions with the ice cream truck were serendipitous. I didn't know the name of the ice cream truck guy. But now things are different. You can book the ice cream truck guy. You can request him to come to your house. If you're having a party, the move is to call Connor. Even if you're not having a party, the move is to call Connor.

• 33:27Speaker 01

  I do like probably like five to 10 house calls a day. And on the weekends after like 5:00 PM, hey Connor, I have 10 kids, can you come here? Hey Connor, I have 20 kids. I have four kids, can you come here? I'm, I'm running around.

• 33:39Dan Pashman?

  Connor's father started the business in 2001, four years after moving to Long Island from Turkey.

• 33:44Speaker 01

  He worked at car washes, gas stations, you know, 16 hour days to support his family. We're four siblings. We actually used to live in Green Lawn in a basement back in, you know, when I was born in 99. And then my dad, one day he was like, you know what? Screw it, let me, let me open up, let me start a truck. Let me, you know, build a truck. Like this truck we're staying right here, he built it. We all built it as a family.

• 34:05Dan Pashman?

  Wow.

• 34:05Speaker 01

  In my backyard, basically, yeah. This used to be an old FedEx truck. I remember when I was 13 years old, my dad was like, hey, you know, go peel off the FedEx sign stickers.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 34:17Dan Pashman?

  I love that. What put this idea into his head?

• 34:19Speaker 01

  He heard about it from a friend of a friend and then you know what? He's like, you know, let me start this. And my dad's not afraid of, you know, starting businesses, doing like, my dad can fix a car, can build a house, and he can make a nice ice cream cone. I'll give you that.

• 34:33Dan Pashman?

  Those are pretty good life skills.

• 34:34Speaker 01

  Exactly. And he's the best. I learned from him.

• 34:38Dan Pashman?

  At first Connor's dad was driving the truck. Then they got a second truck that his mom drove. Then each of his two brothers drove that one too. Eventually his mom retired, the brothers got other jobs, and Connor took over that second truck.

• 34:48Speaker 01

  And now I've been doing this for the past 10 years. I started my senior year in high school and then this is my 10th year.

• 34:56Dan Pashman?

  Now they have three trucks total, Connor's dad, Connor, and Connor's brother-in-law. They're hoping to add another one by the end of the year. Connor says most ice cream trucks these days are independent, but there is one big company in the game, Mr. Softy.

• 35:08Speaker 01

  If you want to work for Mr. Softy, you have to buy their truck and buy a route and you have to pay a loyalty fee. That's it.

• 35:14Dan Pashman?

  So it's like a franchise?

• 35:15Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 35:16Dan Pashman?

  Got it, okay.

• 35:17Speaker 01

  Here's, I'll tell you this, I'm glad I'm not Mr. Softy. So my route is in Huntington. But Mr. Softy, if you buy a route in Huntington, you can only stay in Huntington. You can't go to Sayyaset for a party or a school event.

• 35:29Dan Pashman?

  Oh, because Mr. Softy doesn't want you to infringe on someone else's route?

• 35:32Speaker 01

  Exactly. I'm here today, Dan. Tomorrow I'm in Brooklyn.

• 35:36Dan Pashman?

  Really?

• 35:37Speaker 01

  Yes, I go to Farmingdale University, I go.

• 35:40Dan Pashman?

  That's like, you know, 30 or 40 minutes away.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  I was at Iona University. For you, it's like an hour and a half drive. For me, it's like three hours because you know, it's a truck, it goes slow.

• 35:48Dan Pashman?

  So better to be independent because you can cover more ground.

• 35:50Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 35:51Dan Pashman?

  There are still places though, that are off limits for an independent like Connor. On Long Island, towns will sell a permit to one truck for exclusive rights to sell at a public park or beach. And then drivers bid on those permits. Connor said some of them can be in the tens of thousands of dollars. So he's not in that game anymore because the permits just got too expensive. Anyway, he does better driving around on his own and doing parties. I'll ask him for a little tour of the inside of the truck.

• 36:15Speaker 01

  So this is the ice cream machine. This is called an electro freeze. There's many machines out there, but this is the Cadillac. 99% of the ice cream trucks use this machine. My dad bought this in 2014 from Florida for $8,000. Right now it'll probably go around for like 15, 16K.

• 36:33Dan Pashman?

  It's worth more now?

• 36:35Speaker 01

  Yes, it'll probably double the price.

• 36:37Dan Pashman?

  What is it just because like it's hard to find a good used one?

• 36:39Speaker 01

  Exactly. So there's inflation too, but these machines, you know, it's hard to find.

• 36:44Dan Pashman?

  And how much would this machine cost if I bought like the latest model, like the new version of this one?

• 36:49Speaker 01

  If you bought the latest model of this machine, it's $35,000.

• 36:53Dan Pashman?

  Holy cow.

• 36:54Speaker 01

  Holy cow is, is correct.

• 36:57Dan Pashman?

  Yeah. What makes it the Cadillac? Like what makes this machine so good?

• 37:00Speaker 01

  It's, it's, it has like high-end quality parts. If this machine breaks down, excuse my language, but you're screwed. That's the reality of it.

• 37:09Dan Pashman?

  Approximately what percentage of your sales are soft serve?

• 37:12Speaker 01

  80% of my sales are soft serve.

• 37:16Dan Pashman?

  And 20% is the bars and the pops and stuff?

• 37:18Speaker 01

  Yes. What goes the most with kids is a blue dip with cotton candy.

• 37:24Dan Pashman?

  It's like a cotton candy sort of sprinkles?

• 37:25Speaker 01

  It's a cotton candy crunch, basically.

• 37:27Dan Pashman?

  Right, so it's, it looks almost like the candy nerds.

• 37:31Speaker 01

  Yes, a lot of people think it's Pop Rocks. It's not Pop Rocks. I'm going to say right here again for like the millionth time, it doesn't go crackle in your mouth.

• 37:39Dan Pashman?

  Right, but it's, it's, it's, it looks the sort of like little pink, purple and turquoise pebbles almost like. And so that's cotton candy crunch. The blue dip, which is like a sort of a shell, it's like magic shell, but it's blue. And then you put the cotton candy crunch on top of that?

• 37:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 37:54Dan Pashman?

  You invented that?

• 37:56Speaker 01

  No, I didn't invent that. You know, the kids invented this. I have one customer where he's like, hey Connor, like can I get a blue dip with Oreo, cotton candy and rainbow sprinkles? And it amazes me every single day. They come up with like different creations.

• 38:09Dan Pashman?

  One of the things that I struggle with soft serve is when they fill the cup or the cone, the ice cream goes very, all the way to the very edges of the cup, right?

• 38:16Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:17Dan Pashman?

  So like if you put any kind of topping on top, a lot of it is going to fall off the sides.

• 38:21Speaker 01

  Yes, that's true.

• 38:23Dan Pashman?

  And sometimes those, a cone or a cup, like it could be like this tall tower of soft serve, but you can only get sprinkles on a very small portion. So once you eat off the top layer, the sprinkles are gone.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  How I do my cups is I make it thin and tall, you know, so the sprinkles don't overfill, it doesn't leak.

• 38:39Dan Pashman?

  You leave a little bit of a mole around the perimeter.

• 38:41Speaker 01

  Exactly. And in that opening around like inside the cup, like around, I just fill that with sprinkles in.

• 38:47Dan Pashman?

  See, that's, that's why you're the GOAT Connor.

• 38:50Speaker 01

  I appreciate it.

• 38:50Dan Pashman?

  Most ice cream truck guys are not putting that much thought. I'll tell you what I, what my go-to lately Connor, this is one of my innovations, if you want to try to popularize this.

• 38:59Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 38:59Dan Pashman?

  The Pina Colada sundae.

• 39:01Speaker 01

  Pina Colada, ooh.

• 39:03Dan Pashman?

  Because you have the pineapple sundae.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 39:06Dan Pashman?

  Vanilla ice cream with the pineapple syrup and with pieces of pineapple. You also have coconut flakes.

• 39:11Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 39:12Dan Pashman?

  So I get the pineapple sundae with lots and lots of coconut flakes on it.

• 39:16Speaker 01

  I might have to just change that to the Dan.

• 39:18Dan Pashman?

  There you go. Or you can go like Dan's Pina Colada sundae.

• 39:22Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 39:23Dan Pashman?

  All right.

• 39:23Speaker 01

  Is there cherry on top?

• 39:24Dan Pashman?

  Sure, yeah, let's do it.

• 39:26Speaker 01

  If, if there's no cherry on top, it's not a sundae.

• 39:28Dan Pashman?

  That's fair, that's fair. I want you to put a sign up and see what, and see what happens.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  No, I'm going to try that Dan, I'll send you a picture of that.

• 39:34Dan Pashman?

  All right, good, good, good.

• 39:34Speaker 01

  I promise, I give you my word.

• 39:36Dan Pashman?

  Also, what I would like is a little bit of the pineapple syrup and coconut in the cup first.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  Yes, that works, okay? But see, customers always say that to me, can you put sprinkles on the bottom of it?

• 39:49Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 39:49Speaker 01

  If I put sprinkles on the bottom and I twirl it around in that sprinkle container, the ice cream is going to fall off.

• 39:56Dan Pashman?

  Oh, right, because, oh, so your way of applying the sprinkles is to sort of like actually run the ice cream through the sprinkles?

• 40:02Speaker 01

  The full ice cream, not only the top of the cup.

• 40:05Dan Pashman?

  Because if you're, right, I get, I get what you're saying. Because you could, if you spoon the sprinkles on, they just don't stick as well.

• 40:10Speaker 01

  Exactly. I think you should come to work with me one day.

• 40:13Dan Pashman?

  I'm gonna, let's do it. This is like my dream.

• 40:17Dan Pashman?

  Over the years, Connor's developed a lot of tricks to keep customers happy. It's not all about how to make the perfect cone. One example, he learned early on that parents really don't like when their kids get double cones. You know the cones that have only one pointy bottom, but two separate cup parts that are fused together that each holds ice cream?

• 40:33Speaker 01

  Like my first year, I gave a double cone to a kid and I kid you not, the mom came out running. How dare you give my kid a double cone? It's huge. Like, you know, why don't you ask me this and that? Ever since I've been, I've had trauma about this. And so I just, I always have like, keep an empty box with me, you know, to put garbage in or whatever. And like, I show the kids, they're like six, seven years old. And then I show them the empty box. I'm like, hey buddy, look, like I don't have any more cones, no more doubles left. And then, you know, they stop crying and then the mom gives me the wink. And I, and I do like a hand gesture. Don't worry, miss. Like, I've been in the game.

• 41:08Dan Pashman?

  I love that. I love you. You have a prop empty box.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 41:12Dan Pashman?

  To trick little kids into thinking you're out of double cones.

• 41:15Speaker 01

  Hey, it works.

• 41:16Dan Pashman?

  How long did it take you to master? Cause like, I've worked the soft serve machine, like sometimes at those like yogurt places where you serve yourself or other situations. I can't get a good, nice swirl.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  It took me probably like a good two weeks. Now I can do the swirls with my eyes closed.

• 41:33Dan Pashman?

  I'm sure.

• 41:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:34Dan Pashman?

  What's the secret to it?

• 41:35Speaker 01

  If I tell you, it's not a secret.

• 41:38Dan Pashman?

  Is there a secret? I could probably look it up on YouTube, Connor.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  That's true. It's just practice and practice and practice. Like when I first started, I made cones and waffle cones or single cones. And I put it in the dip and it falls inside the dip. Believe it or not, there's science to it then. There, there really is. You have to like, make sure it's like squished down, the pressure of the machine is good. And you know, if it's watery, if the ice cream is milky, that's not good.

• 42:02Dan Pashman?

  So you got this ice cream machine. There's the vanilla side, the chocolate side, and then there's the swirl.

• 42:07Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 42:07Dan Pashman?

  Can you adjust the percentage of vanilla and chocolate in the swirl?

• 42:11Speaker 01

  The machine does that itself.

• 42:13Dan Pashman?

  Well, what are some of the things you can adjust? Like, how can you alter the ice cream based on the settings?

• 42:18Speaker 01

  I can alter it by making it mushy, by making it like rock hard, basically that.

• 42:22Dan Pashman?

  Is that like, how much, how much air is in it?

• 42:25Speaker 01

  Exactly. So if you put more air, the ice cream is not going to taste as good. It's going to taste foamy.

• 42:31Dan Pashman?

  It's going to have less flavor. Also, it'll, it'll be so soft, it'll melt very quickly.

• 42:35Speaker 01

  Yes. So you find the middle of that and it's like the best, uh, you know, mixation of both the air and the product and it tastes better, to be frank.

• 42:45Dan Pashman?

  Before I let Connor go to begin his route for the day, I have one final ice cream pitch for him. There are some fancy soft serve places in the city.

• 42:52Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 42:53Dan Pashman?

  And one of the things that they've been doing that I love is that they'll take vanilla soft serve and they put olive oil and fancy salt on it.

• 43:02Speaker 01

  Okay. You lost me at olive oil and fancy salt. Okay.

• 43:07Dan Pashman?

  I'm gonna, you know what? Cause we're, we're going out in the truck together later, some other time, right?

• 43:10Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 43:11Dan Pashman?

  I'm bringing olive oil and I'm going to bring some fancy salt.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 43:14Dan Pashman?

  I want you to taste some.

• 43:15Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 43:16Dan Pashman?

  But there's a catch. Connor has waited till the end of our conversation to reveal something shocking.

• 43:22Speaker 01

  Ice cream, I'm not all about ice cream.

• 43:24Dan Pashman?

  Wait, what?

• 43:24Speaker 01

  Okay. So ice cream has a lot of calories, you know? You know, I stopped eating the ice cream.

• 43:29Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 43:30Speaker 01

  And if I get like a little craving, I'll just get like a little dollop of vanilla and that's it.

• 43:34Dan Pashman?

  What about like when you're not working?

• 43:36Speaker 01

  No.

• 43:37Dan Pashman?

  Like, what if you were at the beach with friends and they're like, hey, let's get some ice cream. Like, is ice cream ruined for you?

• 43:42Speaker 01

  No, definitely not. Ice will never be ruined for me. No, no.

• 43:46Dan Pashman?

  We say our goodbyes and Connor heads off to bring his ice cream to the adoring masses. A few days later, my family and I are at our friends Jess and Shane's house with a bunch of other families, little end of school get together. And I text Connor to come by. Do you guys like, any of you like pineapple?

• 44:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, I love pineapple.

• 44:01Dan Pashman?

  I like pineapple. And how do you feel about coconut?

• 44:04Speaker 02

  I love coconut.

• 44:05Dan Pashman?

  Aiden, can I tell you about something that I like to get here?

• 44:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:08Dan Pashman?

  What you do is you get the pineapple sundae. You see the pineapple sundae in the upper right corner? And you ask them to put coconut flakes on top. You got the last one, didn't you? Wait, you, you already did that?

• 44:17Speaker 02

  No.

• 44:18Dan Pashman?

  I thought that was my idea.

• 44:21Dan Pashman?

  Stella, what are you going for?

• 44:22Speaker 02

  Uh, I think I'm getting the banana milkshake.

• 44:25Dan Pashman?

  That's a curve ball. I like that. Jamie, what, what do you got here, Jamie?

• 44:28Speaker 02

  Strawberry milkshake.

• 44:30Dan Pashman?

  Oh, that's a good one. What about you guys?

• 44:32Speaker 02

  Cotton candy or a snow cone? I'm going to get the swirl cone. Why do you think ice cream trucks are fun?

• 44:39Dan Pashman?

  I mean, do you disagree?

• 44:41Speaker 02

  No.

• 44:42Dan Pashman?

  Okay.

• 44:43Speaker 02

  I just don't know how they're fun. They serve ice cream.

• 44:46Dan Pashman?

  Well, that's.

• 44:46Speaker 02

  They're tasty.

• 44:47Dan Pashman?

  Okay. Well, that's, so that's, I mean, first of all, would you agree that ice cream is fun?

• 44:51Speaker 02

  Uh, it's tasty.

• 44:53Dan Pashman?

  Yeah. Not every food is that fun to eat. Ice cream is cold and it's creamy and it's sweet.

• 44:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I'm eating a snow cone.

• 45:01Dan Pashman?

  Well, that sounds fun too. Look, it's a rainbow. Look at the, it's a rainbow.

• 45:03Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm. And there's bubble gum on the bottom.

• 45:06Dan Pashman?

  Ooh. How good is that bubble gum?

• 45:08Speaker 02

  I don't know. You have to get to the bottom.

• 45:11Dan Pashman?

  Looking good, Connor. How many kids have you served so far today, approximately?

• 45:15Speaker 01

  So far today, with kids and adults.

• 45:18Dan Pashman?

  Total people.

• 45:19Speaker 01

  Probably like 700.

• 45:21Dan Pashman?

  Wow.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  I still have like two more parties after this.

• 45:24Dan Pashman?

  As promised, I brought my olive oil and Malden flaky salt so Connor can try it with the vanilla soft serve. I also decided to add some strawberry sauce. Connor lets me get on the truck and make the concoction myself. You're skeptical.

• 45:35Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 45:36Dan Pashman?

  A hundred percent skeptical.

• 45:37Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 45:37Dan Pashman?

  All right. All right. Let's see if I can win you over. All right. Let's get a big cup.

• 45:41Speaker 01

  So vanilla with olive oil and sea salt.

• 45:44Dan Pashman?

  And I'm going to add them as your strawberry topping. All right, vanilla going on. I take a crack at dispensing the soft serve, trying to get that nice, perfect swirl. Okay. Uh, now which way to the strawberry topping?

• 45:55Speaker 01

  First one right here.

• 46:01Dan Pashman?

  Not going to go too crazy. All right. My presentation is not beautiful, but it gets the job done.

• 46:07Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 46:07Dan Pashman?

  All right. Now, I brought my finest olive oil. Give a little drizzle right here. Ready? And then the flaky salt. Connor, I want you to take the first bite. Be honest. If it's not for you, I won't, you'll be hurting my feelings. You know, move the spoon around a little bit, make sure you get a little bit of everything.

• 46:25Speaker 01

  I kind of like it. It's not bad.

• 46:28Dan Pashman?

  It's growing on you, it seems like.

• 46:30Speaker 01

  It is. I think, I think I might finish that.

• 46:34Dan Pashman?

  It's all yours. I'll make another one for myself.

• 46:36Speaker 01

  Awesome. Good. All right.

• 46:37Dan Pashman?

  Let's see how I did, cause I actually didn't taste my ratios.

• 46:39Speaker 01

  They could use a little bit more olive oil.

• 46:41Dan Pashman?

  Mm. Mm. It's so good though.

• 46:45Speaker 01

  It's so weird. I don't get it. I'm speechless right now. You gotta, you gotta like take this away from me, cause I passed my quota for the day.

• 46:52Dan Pashman?

  All right. Suddenly now Connor likes ice cream.

• 47:06Dan Pashman?

  That's Connor Hallis. You can find him on the beaches and streets of Long Island this summer. If you want to have him come to your party, his contact info is in the show notes. Special thanks for this episode to Emma's cousins, Phil and Bob Trop for talking with us and to Emma's mom, Miriam Morgenstern, and her uncle, Phil Tittlebaum, for their help. Also, shout out to Nicola Twilley. She's the co-host of the excellent podcast, Gastropod, and the author of the book Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. We consulted Nikki for this episode. Thank you, Nikki. Next week on the show, award-winning home brewer, Mandy Neglisch, tries to do the hardest thing you can do as a beer expert. Become a master Cicerone. It's kind of like a sommelier for beer. But what happens when she takes the test? Tune in next week to find out.

• 47:48Dan Pashman?

  While waiting for that one, check out last week's episode is our annual game show, Two Chefs and a Lie. We have three guests, two of whom are real chefs, one of whom is pretending to be a chef. Can our contestant, Rachel Martin, host of NPR's Wild Card, figure out who the liar is? You could play along at home. It's up now. Check it out. And hey, did you know you can listen to The Sporkful on the Sirius XM app? Yes, the Sirius XM app, it has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era. Plus live sports coverage. Does your podcasting app have that? And there's interviews with A-list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app all rolled into one.

• 48:26Dan Pashman?

  And right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the Sirius XM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. This episode was produced by me along with managing producer.

• 48:37Speaker 03

  Emma Morgenstern.

• 48:38Dan Pashman?

  And senior producer. Andres O'Hara. It was edited by.

• 48:41Speaker 03

  Camille Stanley.

• 48:42Dan Pashman?

  Our technical director is. Jared O'Connell. Music help from Black Label Music. The Sporkful is a production of Sirius XM Podcasts. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 48:52Speaker 07

  And I'm Natambi Peters, living in Long Beach, California, reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.

• 49:15Speaker 02

  Who's ready for a bike ride?

• 49:18Speaker 07

  Peppa Pig is learning to ride her bike. First, pop on her helmet. Safety first. Then attach the push stick and give her bike a push.

• 49:29Speaker 07

  And watch Peppa paddle. Her legs go round and round as the wheels turn. With more than 75 sounds and phrases, every ride is a big adventure. Peppa Pig Ready Paddle Go. Available at all major retailers now. Confidence. It's listening to your gut. It's moving forward even when the path ahead is unclear. For nearly 160 years, Pacific Life has helped people keep their promises, building confidence for generations. Whether you're confident in your financial future or just beginning to envision it, we're here to help. Ask a financial professional how. Pacific Life, the power of a promise. Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska. And in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona.