Just in time for warmer weather forecast for this weekend, ice cream lovers in Coquitlam have a new place to cool off.
And it’s an old favourite.
Baskin-Robbins has brought its 31 flavours of icy treats to the second level of the Coquitlam Centre shopping mall.
The franchise is owned by Vancouver’s Adel Ashry, who’s franchised global brands like Starbucks, Cheesecake Factory and American Eagle in the Middle East and North America.
His company recently opened Baskin-Robbins shops in Burnaby’s Metropolis at Metrotown as well as Guildford Town Centre in Surrey — part of a massive plan to open 25 of the ice cream outlets in the Vancouver and Calgary.
Baskin-Robbins was founded in 1945 when Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins decided to merge the eight ice cream parlours they independently operated in California.
The Baskin-Robbins brand came five years later, with the two entrepreneurs flipping a coin to determine whose name would come first.
The 31 flavours came from their goal to offer a different ice cream option for every day of a long month. Overall, the company has created more than 1,400 different ice creams for its flavour library.
Through the years, Baskin-Robbins became renowned for developing flavours specially named to commemorate milestone events and pop culture happenings like “Lunar Cheesecake” to honour the first astronauts to land on the moon, “Beatle Nut” to mark the performance by the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 and “Miami Ice” inspired by Michael Mann’s iconic 1980s TV show Miami Vice.
In 1994, Baskin-Robbins was acquired by Dunkin” Donuts and it now has more than 7,700 locations around the world.
