Tom Carvel: The Greek who taught Americans how to eat soft serve ice cream

Greeks found everywhere, and quite a few immigrants from Greece have proven that a combination of ideas, hard work and a bit of luck can turn an emigrant into a pioneer and successful entrepreneur.

In the early 1930s New York was still trying to recover from the economic crash of 1929. There were few opportunities, but summer remained summer, and the demand for coolness always existed – even in 1932.

That’s when the star began to shine Tom Carvel (Athanasius Thomas Karvelas). He was born in Athens in 1906 and at the age of four emigrated to the United States with his parents. Growing up, like many members of the Greek diaspora, he did odd jobs: he was a drummer in a band, and worked as a test driver for Studebaker cars.

In 1932, Carvel took 15 dollars from his then-girlfriend and future wife, Agnes Stewart, and bought a used truck from which he began selling ice cream. However, in taste and consistency it bore little resemblance to the modern one.

A fatal – and at the same time fateful – incident occurred in Memorial Day in New York. During the trip, the truck’s tire burst and the ice cream began to melt. Carvel rushed to a nearby ceramics workshop to connect to electricity and save the goods.

When he returned, he found a crowd of people interested in the unusual “soft-serve ice cream.” Until then, ice cream in the US had been exclusively hard, and the new texture caused quite a stir.

Carvel instantly got his bearings: he set up an impromptu counter and sold out every last portion. According to some reports, in one day he earned $3,500 – an amount equivalent to more than $65,000 by today’s standards.

A few years later, he bought that same ceramic workshop and turned it into the first stationary point of sale of ice cream. Carvel. Using his engineering skills, Carvel designed a machine that kept ice cream soft and patented the invention.

In fact, he became the first person in the world to create machine type ice cream.

After World War II, his product became so popular that Carvel launched the industry’s first franchise network. He not only registered the brand, but also opened his own school for teaching the craft of ice cream production.

Carvel stores began to rapidly spread throughout the United States. It was Carvel who is considered one of the first to use the marketing scheme “buy one, get one free” – “1+1 free.”

In addition, he became the first entrepreneur to personally appear in advertising for his own company. These videos turned out to be so successful that many major American business leaders later followed his example.

When asked why he himself appeared in advertising, Carvel allegedly answered simply: “This is the cheapest advertising.”

Tom Carvel died in 1990 at the age of 84. By that time, the Carvel network consisted of about 700 stores throughout the USA. He left behind a huge fortune and is rightfully considered “father of soft serve ice cream” on a global scale.

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