The battle for a benign, ice-cream eating dragon continues as the Post elucidates the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory vs. Nolita Ice Cream Factory showdown. It turns out that Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory owner Philip Seid contends his brother Henry ripped off the store's logo and flavors for the Nolita location. While Henry Seid's Original Nolita Ice Cream Factory has business cards that also list the Chinatown ICF's address, Philip Seid maintains the Nolita ICF is not affiliated to the CICF. Philip's daughter who works at the CICF explains that her uncle came to work at the CICF but after a few months "he left and basically took what he learned and opened another store. Now he's telling people he's affiliated with us, and he's not... He's family, but we don't even have contact with the man. He changed his number and isn't responding to us. I mean, this is just wrong." Philip Seid may pursue the action in court, but Henry Seid claims as a shareholder in the OCICF, he can take the logo and use it for his purposes. Gothamist would love to hear what an arbitrator thinks of this! Anyway, the Post gives Christina Seid the last word, as she says that Henry is relatively inexperienced with the craft of ice cream: "I can count on my hand how many times Henry made ice cream before opening his own shop. There's an art to ice-cream making. We think we've perfected it and have a high-quality product. His ice cream can give us a bad name." Has anyone noticed a distinct difference in ice cream quality between the two shops? David Yee at Tangentialism didn't, but maybe we need to do an ice cream taste test.
Photographs by David Yee
