Flickr reminds me that since joining in 2008, I have uploaded 19,000 public domain images. I have forgotten many of those images already. Meanwhile I am trawling through a hoard of nearly 100,000 colour slide images, adding the best of them duly digitalised to my Photostream. Here’s a view from the late-1970s that had likewise slipped from my memory. With reference to my chosen title, when I Googled for a reminder of the events alluded to, I was referred to my own 2019 Flickr posting of a Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlour, where I had already outlined the story.
To recap, just around the corner from where I lived, there opened in the dog days of Winter 1975/76 a gaudy American-style ice cream parlour, the likes of which we Londoners had never seen before. Dayville’s 32 Flavors immediately drew the crowds that stretched out into the Finchley Road. The phenomenon attracted the interest of the London Evening Standard, Sunday Times and other media, and further Dayville’s branches opened elsewhere in London.
The man behind the venture was revealed to be one Gabriel Gutman, an expat New York stock trader who was said to be homesick for all those wondrous American ice cream flavours.
Word duly reached the US offices of Baskin-Robbins, who were unamused by Dayville’s literal one-up-manship of their 31 Flavors slogan. Seeking their own opportunity to tap a promising market, Baskin-Robbins retaliated by opening their first British outlet directly opposite Dayville’s. Their corporate clout eventually carried the day as customers switched their loyalties, though my nighttime view shows a good footfall at Dayville’s.
Dayville’s duly faded from the scene, its final outlet closing in 1990. In the midst of the Finchley Road Ice Cream War, the Sunday Times revealed a shadier side to the Gabriel Gutman story, alleging that he had left a host of unpaid debts when he left NYC in haste.
February 1977
Zorki 4 camera
Agfa CT18 film.
Posted by st_asaph on 2023-06-05 15:31:05
Tagged: , Gabriel Gutman , dayvilles , ice cream parlor , London nw3 , ice cream parlour , Finchley road , dayvilles 32 flavours
The post Remembering the Great Finchley Road Ice Cream War first appeared on London.
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Author : london
Publish date : 2025-01-25 15:05:50
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