By Kelsey Durham
After more than 40 years in the business, ice cream maker Malcolm Stogo is using his new factory in Astoria to change the face of desserts.
Opened about a year and a half ago, the plant, at 24-20 49th St., produces a dairy-free ice cream in its newly renovated space, and the item has increased in popularity over the past 12 months.
The tasty treat, titled DF Mavens, follows suit with Stogo’s other products by being made 100 percent in-house with all-natural, local ingredients.
“Our ice cream is unique because we do everything in-house and we’re the cutting edge of new products,” said Stogo, referred to in the food industry as the Godfather of Ice Cream. “We call ourselves a one-stop shop. We do everything natural and fresh, and we do it here.”
Stogo opened the factory in Queens, his first in New York, after deciding to expand to the metropolitan area, as most plants are located in the Eastern Hemisphere. He said he searched around for a while in the New Jersey area before crossing the river into New York, and he soon found himself looking at more affordable real estate in Queens.
“We were looking all over the area but really didn’t find anything we liked until we decided to come to Queens,” Stogo said. “It’s more affordable than Manhattan and it had everything we were looking for and we really liked it, so we took it.”
Since purchasing the factory, which formerly housed a Sabra Hummus plant, Stogo has spent the past year upgrading and expanding the space. He has nearly doubled the plant’s size, from 7,000 square feet to almost 15,000 now, to accommodate the growing interest in his ice cream products and the demand for more.
The plant serves up four types of ice cream — non-dairy, gelato, food service ice cream and private products — which allow people to bring ideas of their own into the factory to be produced and shipped to them. The DF Mavens product has become so popular that Stogo will soon be opening his first storefront in Manhattan’s East Village.
Stogo is also working to continue expanding his plant in Astoria, where he said he will soon add more jobs for Queens residents. He said most of his 20 current employees live in the borough, and the five to 10 new positions he will create as he further expands will go to Queens residents, as well.
He also said he uses ingredients strictly from Queens, a testament to how much he loves being in Astoria.
“We love it in general because we’re close to Manhattan, close to airports, close to highways,” Stogo said. “It’s a really great location for us. We’re the perfect manufacturer for Queens.”
Reach reporter Kelsey Durham at 718-260-4573 or by e-mail at kdurham@cnglocal.com.
