Sixty years of 31 flavors

When she worked at Forest Lawn Glendale in 1954, Ellen Perry, then

24, used to stop at what she called “31 flavors” for chocolate ice

cream.

“We didn’t go every day, just every now and then,” Perry, 72,

said. “It was just to have a treat. My sister and I would stop there

on the way to work. We grew up with the 31 flavors.”

Baskin-Robbins is celebrating 60 years of serving ice cream this

fall by serving $1 scoops on Tuesdays through October.

Irv Robbins opened his first ice cream shop, called Snowbird, on

Dec. 1, 1945, at the corner of Adams Street and Palmer Avenue in

south Glendale, then known as Tropico. Robbins’ brother-in-law,

Burton Baskin, opened Burton’s in Pasadena the next year. Eventually,

the two teamed up to create Baskin-Robbins and established its

corporate headquarters, plant and storage facilities in Burbank and

Glendale along Victory Boulevard.

“The first store to carry the name opened in 1953 in Pasadena,”

said John Carlson, director of the company’s franchise services in

the West, who started at the company as a 16-year-old ice cream

scooper. “Then, over time, Irv converted the Snowbirds to

Baskin-Robbins.”

The duo sold its first licensing agreement in 1948, the same year

they introduced the 31st flavor, chocolate mint, the forerunner of

mint chocolate chip. The company was part of the Southern California

landscape, even introducing a “baseball nut” flavor to commemorate

the Dodgers move to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. The flavor was

changed in 1962 -- the peanuts replaced by cashews -- to welcome the

Los Angeles Angels to the American League.

The ice cream shop that began as a Snowbird in Glendale is now a

franchise operation with more than 5,400 retail shops throughout the

world. The brand is popular in countries such Japan and Korea and

throughout the Middle East, largely thanks to the deployment of the

U.S. military, Carlson said.

“It’s a special part of California, especially Southern

California,” Carlson said. “Southern California was and is the

spiritual home of Baskin-Robbins.”

The corporation’s home for several years was 1201 S. Victory Blvd.

in Burbank; there was a drive-through shop below the company’s

research and development laboratory. Despite its Victory Boulevard

location, the postal service allowed the company to use the address

31 Baskin Robbins Place, Carlson said, confusing visitors who sought

out that fictional address.

Varuzh Tirityan now owns the franchise at that location. Tirityan

first started with Baskin-Robbins as a cake decorator -- he designed

Baskin-Robbins’ signature ice cream cakes for 15 years -- and is now

owner of the company’s second-bestperforming shop.

“Serving people ice cream is the best thing to do,” Tirityan said.

“Every time I serve ice cream to someone, you get a smile on their

face. It’s a fun business to be in.”