I Scream, You Scream: Greg’s Ice Cream A Toronto Institution For Three Decades
Posted May 13, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Greg Mahon likens his life’s work to bartending, only he’s not peddling shots, he’s peddling scoops.
The ebullient founder of Greg’s Ice Cream, a Toronto institution for close to three decades, has made many friends over his years in the business and they’ve shared their life stories with him over a cone or a sundae.
“We’ve been around for a while now. It’s hard to believe we celebrated our 25th anniversary a couple of years ago. It’s been a real trip,” Mahon told CityNews.ca in an interview at his Bloor and Spadina ice cream parlour. “People come into the store, we catch up, we reminisce. We talk about their weddings, their funerals, their children. And their kids come to us now too.”
Mahon was the first to make premium, all-natural ice cream in this city, which he did at the back of his tiny original shop at Bloor St. and Avenue Rd. He used local ingredients and quickly found there was an appetite for his flavours, from standards like vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry to offbeat recipes like grape nut and coffee toffee. The proof? A lineup that stretched around the block on opening day, in December, 1981.
“I figured who the heck is going to be here (on a December day) but there they were,” he smiles, noting that a number of people claim to be his first-ever customers.
There are now more than 100 flavours in the Greg’s Ice Cream vault, but there’s one recipe the Toronto ice cream maker won’t part with and that’s the oft imitated but never duplicated roasted marshmallow. It’s attracted dairies from all over Canada and the U.S. – even Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry’s, have visited Mahon’s store for a taste.
“It’s really quite nice for us, it’s something that has come from our experimentation and creativity (and) has been so rewarded in terms of its popularity,” he enthuses. “I think it’s our 15 minutes of fame.”
Mahon’s business has grown substantially over the years, necessitating his move to the larger store a few years ago. The ice cream is made off-site now, and is sold to a number of gourmet food shops and hotels like The Four Seasons, putting to rest any doubts about whether he could succeed as a business that only catered in the frozen treat.
“When we opened people said, ‘This will never last.’ All we sold, and sell, is ice cream. We had banana splits and milkshakes, sodas and malts and things like that. But nothing else, just ice cream. It’s interesting to me that people (now) say the reason we’re successful is because nothing’s ever changed,” Mahon relates.
“In a world that’s constantly changing, to have something that you can connect to, and that remains the same, is pretty special. I think we all look for memories of happiness and I know that I can ask anybody, anywhere, ‘Tell me a happy experience with ice cream,’ and many people will go back to their childhood and they’ll say, ‘I remember my grandparents visiting,’ (or) ‘I remember winning a baseball game.’ Their faces light up when they talk about their stories, it’s terrific.”
Mahon won’t say what his favourite flavour is but his passion for ice cream is undeniable, whether he’s describing vanilla as “the flavour of the kings” or doling out samples of green tea. He remarks that though he’s seen all sorts of customers walk into his shop over the decades, what they’re looking for is the same.
“We all want the same things. We want to be loved, we want to be respected, we want to be treated nicely,” he muses. “People come here and they might have the weight of the world on their shoulders. They might be mortgaging the house, they might have an exam, they might be getting divorced, they might have a health problem, but they come in, and they look up at the board, and they smile.”
