After he bought his Italian ice truck, Ian Murray had plenty of time to think up a name.
At 61, he had decided on a career change, and found the truck on Kijiji.
“Unfortunately, it was Kijiji in Toronto,” said Murray, now 65.
The truck heater didn’t work, the radio didn’t work, and Murray had a 34-hour drive ahead of him. On the long drive home, he tried to stay warm, dealt with vehicle breakdowns, and thought about what to call his new business.
The Davinci Cone was born.
The Mona Lisa, adopted to advertise the sale of cream ice. (Davinci Cone/Facebook)
“My second choice was going to be Game of Cones,” he told CBC’s Radio Active.
He wanted the name to be fun, considering the idea of a Scotsman selling Italian ice was funny to begin with.
Italian ices generally have no dairy. All but one flavour of Murray’s has dairy, so he calls his product “cream ice.”
He can’t call it ice cream or gelato because the dairy content is too low. But he said kids would call it ice cream.
Murray serves several flavours, including root beer, lemon, strawberry, mango, chocolate and vanilla. He didn’t initially serve chocolate or vanilla, but eventually gave in.
“I had started out trying to direct people away from those sort of more standard flavours, to maybe get them to broaden their horizons,” Murray said. “Then I decided it’s not my place to mould and shape the taste buds of people.”
The vanilla flavour is especially popular among dogs. He serves them frequently at the Terwillegar Dog Park and the Terwillegar Farmer’s Market, where he often sets up shop.
Davinci Cone’s Italian ice isn’t just for humans. (Davinci Cone/Facebook)
A marriage proposal
But his product is also popular with people — so popular it once scored him a marriage proposal.
“Some ladies were chirping me from five deep in the lineup about my root beer ice cream,” Murray said.
When they got to the front of the line, they had the root beer flavour and loved it so much one of the women went to the back of the line to get more.
“She went off to the side and then popped her head around the corner and she says, ‘Will you marry me?’ ” Murray recalled.
Murray says he once turned down a marriage proposal. (CBC)
“I said, ‘Well, I’m a little busy right now. But we can talk later.’ “
He figures he dodged a bullet there.
“I think my life might have been chained in her basement making root beer ice cream for the rest of my life,” Murray said.
These people got married, though, and enjoyed the Italian ice. (Davinci Cone/Facebook)
Marriage proposals aside, Murray’s Italian ice truck has seen great success in its fourth year of business. And it all started with a decision for a career change.
“It took me a long time to decide that I wanted to do it,” he said. “I wanted to be doing things that I could have fun with.
“Selling ice cream, what could be more fun than that?”