The famous Big Gay Ice Cream Shop has an apparently tongue-in-cheek anti-gay competitor.
Since 2009, New York City’s Big Gay Ice Cream Truck has made many people — gay and straight — very happy. Owners Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff created the niche market and saw so much success they opened non-truck stores in the East Village and West Village.
But all in the happy, gay world of delicious ice cream was not to be happy and gay forever.
Enter local New York City restaurant Gallo Nero, whose West Village location apparently is trying to slice into Big Gay Ice Cream’s territory –in a seemingly homophobic way.
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That passion fruit line is pretty telling…
Gothamist has the scoop:
Sensing an acute lack of heteronormative ice cream parlors in the West Village, one Italian restaurant has positioned itself to capture the elusive demographic of those who’ll have two scoops of whatever John Wayne’s having (raw hamburger).
Reached by telephone, a manager at the restaurant seemed confused about the nature of our call.
“What’s the issue? We can call our ice cream whatever we want,” he said.
Asked if the sign was a reference to Big Gay Ice Cream, or if he could see how it may be interpreted as homophobic, the manager, who declined to provide his name, replied, “They have their own way, we have our own way.”
Clearly, the ad campaign isn’t working.
Of course, Perez Hilton had his own, um, unique take:
And there was this one too:
UPDATE: It seems the two ice cream purveyors have ended their battle and made up! Gallo Nero pulled their sign and walked over to Big Gay Ice Cream’s shop and the two had a great time.
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Image of tee shirt via Big Gay Ice Cream