June 12, 2007
Borough President Calls for Ice Cream Boycott
Staten Island is not having a good week. In addition to the outrage over the weird ad copy appearing in part of a Virgin Mobile campaign, the borough’s president has also called for an ice cream boycott. Last Friday, a perturbed James P. Molinaro wrote a letter to Scott and Kim Myles, husband and wife co-owners of the Queens-based 5 Boroughs Ice Cream company. Someone had shown Molinaro a copy of a flyer printed off the 5B website, meant to help persuade local specialty food storeowners to carry the ice cream. There are currently eight 5B flavors, all made in small batches; each is named after a NYC locale or neighborhood. For Molinaro and many Staten Islanders, the offending ice cream flavor is Staten Island Landfill- a swirly mix of brownies, fudge, crunchies, and cherries in a vanilla base. Molinaro objects to what he considers old hat outer borough typecasting; the Staten Island Advance quotes his letter to the company as saying "I am hard-pressed to think of a more insulting and derogatory attack in the name of consumerism.”
For their part, 5B co-founder Kim Myles told the Advance: “We’re an ice cream company that has fun. We knew the flavor would be controversial.” The "theme" of Staten Island Landfill isn’t much of a departure from the other 5B flavors, which include Amoretto Amoré for Bay Ridge. That flavor tastes like its namesake liquor, and is mixed with sliced almonds. It’s meant as an ode to the Brooklyn neighborhood’s Italian residents, and somewhat playfully at that. Bay Ridge is home to many ethnicities and nationalities, and it’s hardly all Italian. Similarly, the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island closed for good in 2001. While still there, it’s hardly the whole borough. But residents no longer want to be associated with a site that was predominantly a garbage dump.
The controversy has temporarily overshadowed the 5B mission statement, which Scott Myles detailed in a Gothamist interview last month. The company was founded with the intention of sourcing and using local products; the baklava in the Bakla-Wha?! flavor, for example, comes from Astoria’s Victory Sweet Shop. Moreover, the company regularly gives profit percentages of particular flavors to charities, and donates even more product for charity events. In a follow-up statement for Gothamist, Scott and Kim explained their position a bit more:
It is never the intention of 5 Boroughs Ice Cream to cause serious offense or harm. We try to have fun with all of flavor names, and respect the fact that some folks may not share our sense of humor. New Yorkers are never shy about their opinions, and that's one of the reasons why we love our town, and want to explore it via tasty ice cream. As a NY-centric company, we strive to make a difference, not just a profit. We use local mom & pop vendors for our ingredients whenever possible, donate to local charities, and give 5% of the proceeds from our 'NYPB' flavor to the NYPD/FDNY Widows and Children's Benefit Fund. We love NYC, and hope to continue to create fantastic ice cream flavors that celebrate (and poke a bit of fun at!) all of the 5 boroughs.
As a diplomatic solution, borough president Molinaro proposed a new Staten Island signature flavor: Ferry Berry. Thinking similarly, Scott Myles says Staten Island Cherry has been in the works since the company was founded, and expects to roll out the first pints of the flavor in 2008. In the meantime, 5B will keep producing Staten Island Landfill, its top seller. 5 Boroughs Ice Cream is now carried by the home delivery upstart Bread-n-Brie, and pints are beginning to make their way into Whole Foods stores in Manhattan.
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I'm from Staten Island and I think it's hilarious. Not to mention it sounds like a damn yummy flavor! Where can i find that stuff?
James Molinaro seems to have a lot of free time on his hands...maybe it's time for a new Borough President.
"Landfill" is DELICIOUS!! Gourmet Garage carries it, but it is always the first flavor to run out.
Ok, but there is a landfill in Staten Island. A big one. One you can see from space.
That's not really a derogatory attack.
"Landfill" is way better than UES's boring "Rich White Vanilla" - who doesn't love chocolate crunchies?
I gotta say, that flavor sounds delicious.
I love those carvel ice cream cake crunchies.
Apparently the ice cream flavor really IS about a billion times more awesome than staten island itself. Way to reinforce old hat outer borough typecasting, Molinaro!
This is so very stupid. If nothing else, I guess it's good publicity for the ice cream. Which is delicious.
Way to treat a small, NYC-based, start-up company that makes a good product and has created jobs in the city!
Couldn't Molinaro have, you know, talked to the Myles' rather than try to embarrass them (which only make him look like an ass)?
All the stores you can get that stuff is at their website:
http://www.5boroughsicecream.com/locations.html
The one place it isn't sold yet is Staten Island, so if you print out the request form (also somewhere on the website) and hand it to your local shop owner they can order it.
Boy, Staten Island seems to be all kinds of touchy lately. Maybe it's something in the water?
Like...MUD???
;-P
Have a sense of humor you idiotic tool.
you could have merged this story and the Michael Moore story.. they are both government providing free advertising to great ideas.
There's no such thing as bad PR. 5 Boroughs should thank Molinaro for all this free publicity, as it's making me want to buy a pint myself. And Molinaro is coming off looking like, as we Brooklynites put it, a schmuck.
It's still better than "Greasy Wop Hair Crunch" or "Orange skinned Italian American Princess"
Buff Orange Guido Grease
Get your Boycott T-shirts here:
http://www.cafepress.com/5boroughs/3110794
I Love Eating Landfill and We Survived!
Shut the fuck up James Molinaro. Aren't there more important things on Staten Island to protest? I wouldn't know as i haven't been more than 20 ft. from the ferry ramp.
i love the way "Orange skinned Italian American Princess" tastes in my mouth. ;)
"James Molinaro seems to have a lot of free time on his hands...maybe it's time for a new Borough President."
Yes, it's surprising how much free time he does have given that he's been busy trying to keep his gumba of a grandson out of jail for probation violation.
http://blog.silive.com/advanceupdate/2007/06/bps_grandson_back_in_court_tod.html
Actually, I agree with Molinaro. Of all the things they used to symbolize Staten Island, why use the dump?
Why not use the Verrazano Bridge, the Zoo, something like that?
www.forgotten-ny.com
There's a Zoo on Staten Island? Who would've guess.
They were gonna name an ice cream after Molinaro, but Chunky Monkey was already taken.
Believe me, this Staten Island Landfill tastes better than the real thing.
Molinaro should be thanking 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. Did anyone see that "MTV: True Life" special about the guidettes from over there? That probably did more damage to SI's image than a small ice cream company ever could.
there were two MTV True lifes based on SI.
One was about SI guidettes and the other was SI'ers renting a summer share on the Jersey shore.
Both were really the same. maybe they had extra footage.
This is making me splurge and buy a pint of 5B landfill.
What happened to having a sense of humor?
Focus on something more important, Molinaro.
I hope 5B's sales jump because of this!
#21, oh you didn't know? They have a free-range zoo in SI, actually.
They even let the animals migrate down to the Jersey Shore each summer...
okay guys, hang on, i just checked google earth, and there's still a gigantic landfill on staten island. maybe this ice cream company is on to something!
I just have to say that I love the Victory Sweet Shop. It's always empty in there (not on the beaten path) and I wondered how they stayed in business. Now it makes sense!
They do have the best baklava and all sorts of varieties of flaky pastries. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
This and Mr. Ratner's poodle Marty Markowitz prove that borough presidents are not good for the city. Just think how much money can be saved if all five offices were eliminated.
#24... let's not forget about True Life: I'm Getting Married. One of the couples was from SI, and what a pair THEY were.
Man, that sounds like a kickass ice cream flavor though.
Brownie chunks, chocolate crunchies, chocolate fudge and cherries.
I have a feeling they're gonna have to make more.
It's like a cherry garcia and I love cherry garcia. This takes it to another level.
Should have named it after the VZ Bridge, aka the Guido Gangplank
You people are missing the point here . What if you were the Boro President and saw Ur Boro being Defamed in this manner . Would you take it lightly ? Would you accept the notion that because Staten Island has a Big Landfill that it's all they have as far as tourism was concerned ? I wonder what you all would say if this company created a derogatory name for Ur neighborhood and used it to hawk there product ! How about for say Prospect Heights they named a flavor " Rich-Stuck up, Snobby-ass white folks" ! Maybe you would like it if they created a flavor for Boro Park called "Boro Parks finest" "Chuck full of Jews for that bland religious flavor ! All this guy's saying is that his Boro has a hell of a lot more for this company to focus on as far as Representing them . >Posted by; "Still Not Amused"
I heard jerry garcia from the grave was suing ben and jerry's.
Molinaro is a loser. a damned loser.
Their UES ice cream is called Rich White Vanilla.
That. Is. Awesome.
The guest at [33] needs to cut the crap and stop being such a drama queen. Look at the flavors they have for all the other neighborhoods. With the exception of SoHo, which is just not at all creative, the other flavors are poking fun at the respective neighborhoods as well. Stop whining already!
That said, I wanted to thank Molinaro for bringing this ice cream to my attention. I stopped by St. Mark's Market on my way home tonight, and got the last pint of Landfill. It is fucking delicious. People are comparing it to Cherry Garcia, which I like, but let me tell you, this is much better.
#33 Get real. This is hardly as you said "a derogatory name for the neighborhood"
lawl, staten island's world renowned zoo eh?
staten island = ferry, crazies on the ferry, one mall, one movie theatre, LANDFILL (gj #27 haha), massive amounts of guidos, and this phantom zoo.
of course i'm exaggerating, but i'm not far from the truth. SI is no man's land in terms of nyc. even the bronx on mainland is more nyc than staten island.
I'm an ice cream aficionado from Staten Island (visit my Ice Cream New York site!) and though I think the name sounds unappetizing, I'm not offended by it. 5 Boroughs is deliberately trying to be edgy; several of their flavor names could be considered slightly offensive. And if the politicians are going to get all worked up about it, why couldn't they have closed the landfill years earlier when residents were complaining? They seem to forget it's their own damn fault we have such a huge garbage dump. I'm sure future flavors from 5 Boroughs will feature some of the good things the island has to offer, but I say more power to them.
(P.S. Staten Island also has botanical gardens including a Chinese Scholar's garden, historic Richmondtown, a large bird sanctuary, and a Tibetan Museum. Just so you know we do have some cool stuff around here.)
icecreamnewyork.com
I guess it's a requirement for the job that the SI BP has to be an idiot.
I don't know, I think this makes 5 boros ice cream look lame, NOT Molinaro.
I mean, come on:
“We’re an ice cream company that has fun. We knew the flavor would be controversial.”
Trying to be controvesial doesn't necessarily = controversy
Whoo, and you pointed out that rich white poeple on the Upper East Side, as they have for over a hundred years. How EDGY.
I would expect Molinaro to defend his boro. Especially after the landfill has been closed for over SIX YEARS. It would be awful to live in a decidedly "uncool" boro and still have that landfill stigma attached to it all the time.
S.I. was only joined to the rest of civilazation in the 1960's, via the bridge. It's largely backwoods but it's not ALL bad.
Once they build some sort of rapid transit connector, and the dump has been closed for a decade, yuppies from the Midwest and whatnot will FLOOD S.I. and buy homes there.
They will talk about how quiet, family-oriented and how much history and culture there is. Like the oldest house in NYC, the zen garden, zoo, etc.
Of course that all exists now - It's just not trendy yet.
And yes, there's a lot of guido families and minority familes now, and I think that WASPs are afraid of them. They'll feel more comfortable moving in when the neighborhoods are more whitewashed.
-La Leone-
P.S.
laboratorio del gelato is the most incredible ice cream I have ever tasted. (In the U.S.)
www.laboratoriodelgelato.com
-La Leone-
I am so very glad to see this degree of interest in 5 Boroughs Ice Cream...Kim Myles is my daughter. I just wish I could taste the stuff...we live in Bakersfield, California. Kim grew up here and like all of us endured years of being the butt of Johnny carson's jokes...but we didn't boycott, it was a joke. I have suggestions for new names since the absence of a land fill makes this one dated. How about Staten Island Hyper-sensative or Staten Island Indignant or Staten Island Thin Skin? Keep eating thier Ice Cream...her Dad thanks you.
Get a fuckin sense of humor already!
Uh, that's the point, Kim's Dad, I think a lot of people are objecting to the name, but if you want to call it "interest," then sure. People have a right to say the name sucks without being *hypersensative.*
A self-described NY-centric company shouldn't dis one borough over another. But that's just my opinion.
My sense of humor is reserved for funny things. I don't know, this name seems sort of cutesy and stupid.
-La Leone-
I agree that the Borough Prez obviously has a lot of time on his hands to be complaining about the name given to a bucket of ice cream, thereby giving the company that makes the product oodles and oodles of free publicity.
That said, the suggestion to call the ice cream "Staten Island Berry" or "Ferry Berry" is also nice...but not as nice as the ingredients list of "Staten Island Landfill" ice cream! :) I can't wait to try some!
the landfill ice cream sounds SOOOOO tasty.