The new Bi-rite soft serve window! :)
Left (mine): VANILLA! After going on about how I don't like most vanilla ice creams, I tried this one and ended up getting it! It's sooo lovely! I got the Bi-rite dark caramel sauce and toffee bits to go with it! Amazing combination, if I do say so myself. :) Right: Vanilla with toffee bits and brownie. The brownie was okay, but not chocolaty enough for me. We both agreed mine was better. :)
So I got the scoop with Molly Moon's (the Bi-rite knock off in Seattle). It turns out that the Molly Moon's lady came down to Bi-rite and asked questions about the ice cream a few months before opening in Seattle. I guess she lacked to mention she was opening a shop in Seattle! Next thing they know, she stole the entire menu and opened Molly Moon's! That's pretty awful. It worked though because Bi-rite didn't have any copyrights. :(
Yelp
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Update! So Molly Moon wrote me and I feel a bit bad about how I presented this post. I would like to clarify that the information I presented in my post was from a conversation I had with two Bi-rite employees (who had just spoken with one of the owners). It really wasn't my intent to slander Molly Moon though. I think it's great that these wonderful flavors are in Seattle, I just think Bi-rite should get a bit of credit for some of the flavors/sundaes. Before writing what I did, I also went through some of the Molly Moon press and saw no mentions of Bi-rite, which was upsetting. I'm promise, I only wrote what I heard from these employees though, and again, just think Bi-rite deserves some credit here! If you're in Seattle though, you should certainly go to Molly Moon's for ice cream because they do have some yummy treats.. Bi-rite's Sam's Sundae is pretty great!
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Update! So Molly Moon wrote me and I feel a bit bad about how I presented this post. I would like to clarify that the information I presented in my post was from a conversation I had with two Bi-rite employees (who had just spoken with one of the owners). It really wasn't my intent to slander Molly Moon though. I think it's great that these wonderful flavors are in Seattle, I just think Bi-rite should get a bit of credit for some of the flavors/sundaes. Before writing what I did, I also went through some of the Molly Moon press and saw no mentions of Bi-rite, which was upsetting. I'm promise, I only wrote what I heard from these employees though, and again, just think Bi-rite deserves some credit here! If you're in Seattle though, you should certainly go to Molly Moon's for ice cream because they do have some yummy treats.. Bi-rite's Sam's Sundae is pretty great!
I noticed remarkable similarities in the Molly Moon's menu as well. Not only are a number of the special flavors exactly the same (salted caramel, honey lavender, scout mint/mint chip, ginger), there are similarities in marketing (use of local ingredients, seasonal flavors). Even the chalk board installed at a lower height for kids is a direct ripoff. Bi-Rite has a right to be upset that elements of their store were so blantantly copied.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous post. Sorry, Molly, but if you're going to unabashedly copy the theme and flavors of a successful and original business in a different city and try to pass them off as your own, you could at least come up with a different name for Sam's Sundae. (If it hadn't been called the EXACT SAME THING as the sundae at Bi-Rite, I may have still entertained the possibility that you came up with it independently... or at least that both stores were capitalizing on an existing idea).
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