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October 1, 2004/Tishri 6 5765, Vol. 57, No. 5
New shop looks to scoop up competition
MICHAEL MIKLOFSKY
Staff Writer
When Tom Carvelas' ice cream truck broke down in Hartsdale, N.Y., in the summer of 1934, selling ice cream 70 years later during a hot summer in the middle of the Arizona desert was the furthest thing from his mind.
But it has happened. On Sept. 24, the Valley's sixth Carvel ice cream shop opened for business at 13637 N. Tatum Blvd., Suite 25, Phoenix.
All ingredients distributed by Carvel are approved kosher by KOF-K Kosher Supervision, according to the company Web site. The only Valley location supervised locally is at 742 E. Glendale Ave., Suite 122, Phoenix, by Rabbi Chaim Silver of Young Israel of Phoenix.
In the two nights preceding the opening, the group of partners welcomed community members into the store to taste-test the famed soft serve ice cream, which has led to the brand's mostly East Coast name recognition.
Today, Carvel ice cream is sold in 450 branded stores and 7,500 supermarkets throughout the nation.
The first Carvel store in the Valley opened in fall 2001 at Indian School Road and 38th Street under the ownership of Danny McCarthy and Tom Damato. Two years later they joined forces with Paul Steen, Saul Kaplan and Tom Horowitz, who brought business knowledge and financial resources. This allowed the group to sign a six-year deal with Carvel to open a total of 30 stores by 2009.
"Paul and I actually were looking for a heritage brand, a food brand, and we wanted something that really wasn't known well out West, or wasn't here yet, but had significant history somewhere else and that's how we came upon Carvel," says Horowitz, who worked for Dairy Queen and Burger King to scout for future locations.
The backgrounds of the other partners are as varied as the types of ice cream, which are made on location, or the signature ice cream cakes that bear names like "Fudgy the Whale" and "Cookie Puss."
Steen is a business attorney in the Valley and previously served as a board member of the American Jewish Committee; Kaplan is the father of Laurie Steen, Paul's wife, and a former McDonald's franchisee; McCarthy owned and operated Carvel stores in New York for 20 years; and Damato used to own a restaurant equipment company, but now works in construction.
"If you're from back east, you grew up with a birthday cake from Carvel and now that there's so many East Coast people that live here, it brings that name recognition to us," Horowitz says.
Damato's mother, Jacki, can relate - the family lived in New York for decades and the Carvel name became as well known in their home as their own.
"I was a working mother, so instead of making cake, I stopped and I got a Carvel and then it became tradition - and they loved it - so it became tradition that everybody had to have a Carvel cake for their birthday," she says. "Any occasion, anything, it was Carvel cake."
Tom Damato says he remembers that too.
"'It's Mom's birthday, oh OK, I'll pick up the Carvel cake,'" Damato says. "That was just the household word. Kleenex, tissue. Carvel, cake."
But the partners will need to do more than just relate stories of the influence of Carvel on their lives. They'll need to out-muscle some stiff competition, which includes Baskin Robbins, Dairy Queen, Valley-based Cold Stone Creamery and others.
Laura Smith works with Spinning Plate Marketing, which is helping to promote the new location.
"I can't speak for everyone, but Carvel's ice cream cakes are 100 percent ice cream, that they make in the store every day," she says.
During the first week of the opening of any Carvel store, $5 is donated to a community program or organization each time an ice cream cake is purchased. For the new store, money was collected for Desert Springs Elementary School.
Contact the writer here
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