LA’s CVT Soft Serve Truck Starts Its Retail Chapter At Gelson’s

Getting some of the best soft serve in Southern California is now as easy as going to the grocery store.

Los Angeles-based CVT Soft Serve, a scrappy family-owned food-truck business that has diversified into multiple revenue streams, is launching its soft serve pouches in the frozen section of every Gelson’s supermarket this week. It’s a major milestone for CVT founder Joe Nicchi, whose previous highlights include serving Bill Murray, delivering a CVTeeny soft serve machine to Jeff Bezos and becoming a social-media sensation after telling freeloading influencers he would charge them double.

Starting at Gelson’s, a gourmet grocer that has stores in prime Los Angeles, Orange County and Santa Barbara locations, is the beginning of an ambitious plan to roll out to multiple food markets, other retailers, event venues and more.

“I think the dream scenario is that CVT becomes a household name,” says Nicchi, whose business was born out of his childhood love for the classic soft serve he ate growing up in upstate New York. “I think we have the opportunities currently cooking up that will make this a national brand. I think that grocery stores aren’t the only vertical. We would love to consider outdoor events. We would love to consider college campuses. We would love to consider airlines. This is truly a no-mess portable soft serve. So, yeah, our demo is pretty much babies to grandparents.”

It’s not lost on Nicchi, who says his grocery-store product is as creamy as what he serves on his trucks, that CVT’s pouches resemble what kids use to consume baby food, applesauce and yogurt.

“I know the connotation of ice cream, the actual category in general, is children,” Nicchi says. “However at my trucks, I would say 80-percent-plus are adults. I think there’s going to be a learning curve to get adults comfortable with eating out of a pouch. But I know it’s possible. It’s going to be fun. You actually almost feel like a kid again.”

At Gelson’s, the pouches are $4.99 each and customers have the choice of chocolate or vanilla. Those flavors are the essence of CVT, which is focused on simple nostalgia. In fact, CVT launched in 2014 with Nicchi using a soft serve recipe from his restaurateur father that was updated with California milk. But Nicchi says he’s open to adding other flavors like coffee or strawberry to CVT’s CPG offerings.

As for the pouch itself, CVT has a design patent pending and is in the process of filing for additional patents “to protect what we believe are other unique features of the product and how it’s made.”

Gelson’s knows that CVT is a strong LA brand, with trucks that have dazzled crowds in locations near many of its stores. For example, there’s a CVT truck that regularly parks on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, not far from the Gelson’s Sherman Oaks and Valley Village markets.

“Gelson’s is very excited to be partnering with CVT on their retail launch,” says Rich Gillmore, vice president of center store at Gelson’s, which has 27 supermarkets “We love to work with innovative brands like CVT to inspire our customers with fantastic new products. CVT is an iconic LA local brand, much like Gelson’s, that really seems to be a perfect fit for our food-trend-forward customers.”