May 8, 2008 on this blog, we said goodbye to Mr. Robbins of "Baskin-Robbins" and I rambled on about a food I no longer eat…
Irvine Robbins, co-founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream dynasty, passed away the other day. I gave up ice cream many years ago but retained an inexplicable fondness for the history and trivia of that business. For instance, did you know that Banana Nut was the favorite flavor of Howard Hughes? That once, when Banana Nut had fallen out of the Baskin-Robbins flavor rotation, Hughes's staff paid the company a fortune to make up a special batch, rather than go tell Mr. Hughes that he couldn't have his favorite ice cream?
One obit on Mr. Robbins listed the original 31 flavors offered in his stores. They were…
I look at that list and I think, "Y'know, they could have just left it that way forever." They could even have gotten rid of about 25 of them. I'm not particularly adventuresome when it comes to new flavors. I go into a restaurant where I've previously had a terrific meal and my first instinct is to order the same thing again…something I know I'll like. In all my years of going to Baskin-Robbins, I probably tried about a dozen different flavors, most of which were some different combination of Chocolate and Vanilla. If their entire selection had consisted of those two flavors plus Orange and Lemon Sherbet, I don't think they'd have gotten any less of my business.
I remember for a while ordering something called Chocolate Mousse Royale and occasionally throwing caution to the breezes and opting for French Vanilla over Vanilla. These were just Chocolate and Vanilla on steroids. In my more madcap, impetuous moments, I might even go for Chocolate Chocolate Chip…and for a few visits there, I chose something that was vanilla ice cream with a chocolate ribbon and little chunks of peanut butter. Oh, yeah — and once I think I had a scoop of Strawberry but I hedged my bet and made it half of a two-scoop parlay with Vanilla. My most frequent two-scoop selection was Orange Sherbet and Vanilla — and remembering an old Peanuts strip, I always asked that the Orange be on top so it would drip down and flavor the Vanilla instead of the other way around, and I'd have the Vanilla aftertaste.
It's not that I don't like to gamble. I just think that when you gamble, you ought to have a shot at a real upside. Imagine if you had a choice of putting your dough into one of two slot machines. One, you know will pay off with a nice jackpot. The other might pay off the same or a few cents more but it also might not pay off at all. Which one would you pick? Well, that's the way I feel in a place like Baskin-Robbins. I know the Chocolate Chip will be terrific. Another, heretofore unsampled flavor might be a teensy bit better but I might also not like it, which I would realize at first lick, whereupon I'd be stuck with a whole cone or dish of the stuff. So why not play it safe? It's not like the new flavor might cure acne or attract supermodels to you. It can't be so much better than the Chocolate Chip that it warrants the risk.
So Mr. Robbins, while I appreciate all those extra choices you offered and all the inventive alchemy your laboratory concocted, I would have been perfectly satisfied with Chocolate, Vanilla, Orange Sherbet, Lemon Sherbet, Strawberry, and some chocolate/vanilla combo like Chocolate Chip. All of them are on the above list so you had me from Day One.