Co-proprietors Bryan Petroff and Doug Quint of the super popular Big Gay Ice Cream Shop are now contending with a brash upstart, it seems, calling itself “Big STRAIGHT Ice Cream,” which is apparently the best the folks at West Village wine bar Gallo Nero could come up with to push their vanilla and chocolate cones.
Some may argue that the nom de soft-serve isn’t particularly hateful, but regardless, the restaurant’s sign is clearly an ill-advised strategy and tone-deaf marketing ploy, even if the crews invariably showing up at the Seventh Avenue South wine bar demanding answers have given the place some PR in the process. (“What’s the issue? We can call our ice cream whatever we want,” a manager says.) Despite the sign’s secondary push advertising its “passion fruit Greek yogurt,” there’s clearly not a lot of love going around at Gallo Nero. And so far, customers just aren’t having it: “[I]f its not gay I’m not going to eat it,” writes one.
