Matt Allen, aka Ice Cream Man, is the Johnny Appleseed of ice cream. For five years he and his crew have heroically traveled the country giving away ice cream completely free of charge. Allen, who hiked the Appalachian Trail and walked from Mexico to Canada before getting seriously involved with ice cream, is both an entrepreneur and an adventurer. “I had to do something that was new, that hadn’t been done before,” Allen says. “I realized, holy shit, you can do anything with an ice-cream truck. It’s mobile, everyone loves free ice cream.” Currently featured on a Web series titled “Road Tripping,” Ice Cream Man is hitting major summer music festivals, doling out frozen treats and filming intimate artist performances. The Web series is being put on by Babelgum.com, which was originally interested in producing a music series in the U.S. Each webisode usually features an artist performing a song or two in front of Allen’s ice-cream truck. “Our whole mission is to give away half a million [pieces of] ice cream,” says Allen, who gave away about 45,000 pieces of ice cream at last year’s Lollapalooza. Ice Cream Man will be at the Pitchfork Music Festival this coming weekend, handing out fruit bars and ice-cream sandwiches to dairy-starved attendees.
Dining and food culture in Chicago
