Soon there was a cult following for the beat-up truck with a gay-pride logo selling ice cream topped with ingredients like wasabi powder and curried coconut, along with creations like the Salty Pimp cone (vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche, sea salt, and chocolate dip). Rather than devising a business plan - which he has yet to do - Quint decided to connect with each customer on a personal level and give them a product they couldn't get anywhere else. Quint told Gothamist that he relished the idea that people would talk under their breath about a middle-aged white gay man driving an ice-cream truck, and he wanted to make the joke before they could - and so the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck was born. Petroff, his boyfriend, was working in human resources for a clothing retailer, and figured it would be fun to come up with a unique menu. His musician friend Andrea Fisher got him the ice-cream truck, which he slapped a rainbow-cone logo on.
He was tired of traveling with orchestras and wanted to take advantage of the weirdest business opportunity he could find.
Quint, a trained classical bassoon player, decided to rent a used Mister Softee ice-cream truck because he needed a second job to afford living in New York City. The business started in the summer of 2009 as a way to pick up some extra cash.