NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – The original Big Gay Ice Cream Shop in the East Village has closed amid the pandemic, its owners said.
The location at 125 E. 7th Street was the first brick-and-mortar location for the ice cream company. It opened in 2011 after the success of its food truck, which offered zany flavors like Salty Pimp and Dorothy.
A for-rent sign went up at the location recently, and neighborhood blog EV Grieve reported that the popular outpost has permanently closed after shuttering last March amid the state "PAUSE" shutdown.
Co-founders Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff released a statement to EV Grieve, saying in part: "With great sadness but with no regrets, Bryan and I decided that the time came for Big Gay Ice Cream to close our East Village location."
The duo said they quit their day jobs and "built ourselves a perfectly imperfect hole-in-the-wall soft serve joint."
Quint and Petroff said the street hasn't been the same lately, with empty storefronts "kept vacant by landlords working tax breaks" and the pandemic.
"We decided that even if the shop managed to make it through 'the COVID thing' it would never truly recover," they said. "We need to be able to jam customers in during the summer to make enough money to get us through the off season."
But Big Gay Ice Cream will live on. The locations in the West Village and Upper West Side are open, and Quint and Petroff "hope to open another East Village or Lower East Side location before too long."
