Carvel is an American ice cream franchise owned by GoTo Foods (formerly Focus Brands). Carvel is best known for its soft-serve ice cream and ice cream cakes, which feature a layer of distinctive "crunchies". It also sells a variety of novelty ice cream bars and ice cream sandwiches. Its slogan is "America's Freshest Ice Cream".

Carvel operates a chain of ice cream outlets spread across 16 states and Puerto Rico. Mainly concentrated in the Northeast United States and Florida, its stores are primarily located in high-traffic areas such as airports, malls, and sports arenas. The company also sells ice cream cakes in more than 8,500 supermarkets.

Since 2001, the corporation has been owned by Roark Capital Group and operated as part of Focus Brands. As of 2025, the company reports having 326 locations in 16 states and eight countries.

Novelty ice creams

Carvel popularized various novelty ice cream items, such as the "Flying Saucer", a circular ice cream sandwich; the "Icy Wycy", a paper cone of sherbet on a stick; "Brown Bonnet" and "Cherry Bonnet", frozen vanilla ice cream on a sugar cone dipped in a sweet, waxy confection; the "Tortoni", a cup of vanilla ice cream covered with toasted coconut and topped with a maraschino cherry; and the "Lollapalooza", cylindrical ice cream on a stick covered with colored sprinkles, as well as the "Mamapalooza" and "Papapalooza". there were special cakes for most major holidays, including a "Flower Basket" for Mother's Day, "Hoot The Owl" for June graduations, "Dumpy the Pumpkin" and "Wicky The Witch" for Halloween, "Tom the Turkey" for Thanksgiving, "Seamus The Leprechaun" or "Cookie O'Puss" for St. Patrick's Day, and Santa Claus or a "Snow Man" for Christmas. Most of these were made from one of a limited number of molds; the Santa Claus cake had a two-pointed hat because the mold was ordinarily inverted and used the rest of the year to make Fudgie the Whale, who had a tail. Their primary differences from products available year-round were the designs on the icing.

Carvel introduced the Lil' Love ice cream cake on March 30, 1998. The commercials, which first appeared in its introduction, show small children in special situations, such as losing a baby tooth, starring in a class play, getting an A in a school class, and getting new glasses (sung to the tune of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay"). A mother presents a new cake to celebrate. All ads carry the tagline Surprise someone special tonight.

History

thumb|Carvel logo from 1989 to 2012

Carvel was founded and operated by Tom Carvel for its first 60 years. In 1929, Carvel borrowed $15 ($ today) from his future wife Agnes and used it to buy and operate an ice cream truck. Over Memorial Day weekend of 1934, Carvel's truck had a flat tire in Hartsdale, New York. Within two days, Carvel had sold out his inventory on the spot, much of it partly melted. He realized that a fixed location selling soft ice cream (known at the time as frozen custard) as opposed to hard was good business. In his first year, he grossed over $3,500. By 1937 he had a soft-serve stand at the Hartsdale site, with a freezer allowing him to make his own product. By 1939, the gross revenue was over $6,000. In a 1982 interview on Late Night with David Letterman, Carvel said that he decided to announce his own commercials in 1958 after the announcer on a commercial for the grand opening of a Carvel store in New York City did not mention the new store's location. Convinced he could do better, he drove to the radio station and did the next commercial himself. From then onwards, Carvel recorded nearly all of the chain's advertising, eventually maintaining an in-house production studio at the headquarters offices and becoming something of a regional celebrity.

Carvel's commercials stood out and raised brand awareness primarily through their lack of sophistication. Carvel had a distinctive "gravelly" voice, lacking the "slick" sound of most professional voice-over artists, and all his narration was unrehearsed. His wording was conversational, with commercials frequently ending with the words "Thank You". Television commercials aired primarily in the "tri-state area" of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, began in 1971. Accompanied by the familiar Tom Carvel narration, footage showed the products and employees in the stores; very few graphics or effects were used.

Promotions were part of Carvel's practices from their earliest days. In 1936, they had a "Buy One Get One Free" promotion and various contests in later years. They were an early adopter of corporate sponsorship of various events and tie-in promotions, including a tie-in with the New York Yankees. The same year, the Beastie Boys released their first single, Cooky Puss, which included audio of the rap band making prank phone calls to a Carvel store.

By 1985, there were 865 stores with an income of over $300 million.

thumb|Carvel Ice Cream Cakes at Shoprite of Essex Green, West Orange, New Jersey

thumb|Carvel [[Co-branding|co-branded store in San Ysidro, California]]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Howard Stern used a vocal harmonizer to imitate the "outer space" voice of Cookie Puss that was used in Carvel's TV advertisements. Stern also frequently references longtime co-worker Fred Norris's cluelessness and cheapness in having once given his mother a Cookie Puss cake as a Mother's Day gift.

In 1989, an aging Tom Carvel sold the corporation to Investcorp for $80 million.

During the 1990s Carvel expanded its presence in supermarkets, but analysts said it angered franchisees who felt it would hurt business at their stores. In 2001 the number of Carvel franchises in the United States had declined over the past 10 years from about 700 to 400. Carvel said they began their supermarket program "to adjust for consumers' one-stop-shopping buying patterns." As of 2008 their products were available in 8,500 supermarkets nationwide. Their geographic presence expanded from 25 states in 2002 to nearly all 50 states in 2008.

In August 2007, Abdul Faghihi, the owner of the original Carvel location in Hartsdale, revealed that he had applied for permission to knock down the store and develop a retail strip on the property. The Hartsdale store was closed on October 5, 2008. In March 2009, the store was demolished to make way for a Japanese restaurant.

In 2015, Carvel started to open co-branded stores with Auntie Anne's and Cinnabon.

, there were 358 Carvel franchises worldwide, with 326 in the US. In 2023, the Carvel website reported 331 Carvel locations in the US, 246 of which were in New York, New Jersey and CT.

See also

  • Cinnabon Swirl
  • List of dairy product companies in the United States
  • List of frozen custard companies

References

  • Official website
  • Smithsonian Institution Carvel archives page
  • Washington Post video tour of Carvel archives