![]() ![]() Today, Mister Softee, Inc., is “America’s oldest and largest franchisor of soft ice-cream trucks,” with more than 640 trucks belonging to about 275 franchisees in 19 states. The third-generation multimillion-dollar business started here before moving over the bridge to Runnemede it is now quietly run by two grandsons of one of the founders, who were the sons of Irish immigrants. But not everybody knows Mister Softee, Inc., is a Philadelphia company. ![]() Listen for my store on wheels ding-a-ling down the street.Įverybody in Philadelphia knows Mister Softee. My milkshakes and my sundaes and my cones are such a treat I just follow the sound, that jingle, the one that’s lured the group of kids now milling around his serving window. When I arrive near Williams Avenue and East Phil Ellena Street and see no truck, he texts again: “I’m here if you want to drive three blocks up.” Which is unnecessary, really. He can’t tell me exactly where to meet him - I learn that in the world of Mister Softee, questions of time and location have inexact answers - but he texts me a map of roughly where he expects he’ll be. Instead, one unexpectedly warm day, somewhere off in the distance, you hear the Mister Softee jingle, which, I’ve come to learn, has lyrics:īecause of the COVID pandemic, Morad’s bottom line took a beating last year, and he just couldn’t pass up this unseasonably beautiful day. It’s only March - the official ice-cream season doesn’t start until April - but unlike Rita’s Italian Ice or the Phillies, there’s no fanfare for a Mr. It’s an early spring afternoon in West Oak Lane, and I’m about to get ice-cream-man lessons from Morad Khalil, a Mister Softee franchisee who’s been pulling cones of soft-serve on the streets of Philadelphia since the 1990s. Mister Softee franchisee Morad Khalil serves a strawberry-shortcake-topped vanilla cone. ![]()
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