Sad news for Tosci's fans

[nonelvis]

State seizes ice cream firm over back taxes

Farewell, Chocolate No. 3, Orange Chocolate, Nocciola, Grapenut Raisin, Vienna Finger Cookie, Butter Chip, Cake Batter, and at least 50 other flavors I've had since I first arrived in Massachusetts more than 20 years ago. It sounds like Gus has no one to blame here but himself, but I'm still incredibly sad to see this happen.

Comments

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

HFS! I've been going there since the fall after it opened and it's been a necessary stop on every visit to Boston since. How could he have screwed up that badly? This is worse than when Mary Chung lost her lease.

[nonelvis]

I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not. All his attempts to expand failed, and he also "forgot" about renewing his lease on the Davis Square space he shared with the Someday Café.

I feel like some tiny part of my past has just withered up and died. I visited Tosci's during R/O! I just hope someone really clueful buys everything up and decides to preserve the business.

[peebles.livejournal.com]

MARY CHUNG DID WHAT??

[columbina.livejournal.com]

That's ancient history, from before she was in her current location. It's why she wasn't around for some years, but that happened before your time. Don't let him scare you; remember that profrobert is somewhat more antiquated than the rest of us.

As far as I can tell Gus just refused to pay those taxes and was always unrepentant about it. I have no sympathy. I will miss the ice cream, but most reports from the field say that Gus was not a very nice man, and I won't miss him.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

I don't know to whom you're talking, but Gus was always a prince to me and to BS-squared (and we were not the easiest people to be nice to). The Tech did numerous promotions with Toscanini's, and I'd get a big hello and friendly conversation anytime I visited if Gus was in the back (and if I were in town long enough, he'd make me a batch of White Chocolate, my favorite). BS-squared said it seemed to him that Gus's heart wasn't in it the past few years, but he seemed his old self to me last year (he was talking about advising on a new store to open on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, but I never heard more about it).

[otherwise-nyc.livejournal.com]

Huh. I didn't know Gus so well as Robert seems to have, but I've chatted with him a few times. A fellow I was seeing for a couple of months told me he'd once worked for Gus, and the next time I was in town I said hello and we had a lovely chat, and chatted the next few times I was in the shop.

I'm really incredibly sad about this. I hope some sort of resurrection occurs.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

Mary's used to be on the east side of Mass Ave. Somewhere in the mid-90s, she lost her lease, and the restaurant disappeared for a couple of years until it reopened on the other side of the street.

With Tosci's closed, what am I going to get for dessert after the Peking Ravioli, Dry Cooked Sliced Beef and Kung Pao Chi Ding? This is a tragedy.

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

Huh. My understanding was that her lease wasn't renewed because the building was sold or converted or something. (Or were you just comparing in terms of tragedy, rather than process?)

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

Magnitude of tragedy. I think the tech firm next door expanded into her space.

[nonelvis]

Boston Magazine's blog is reporting that Gus is hoping to settle things and open within a few days. Of course, Gus said much the same thing about the Someday Café lease dispute, and now that space is owned by Mr. Crêpe.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Well, this is the second time in the past [mumble] years that this has happened. During my final days as a contractor-ex-employee at MIT, there was a week where the property was shuttered with tax notice stickers on the doors - I remember passing by to get a Vietnamese coffee and being horrified. It reopened two or three days later. That's also about the time when the other locations began closing.

Gus will pay them enough to get them off his back for another three or four years, and then this whole show will play out again. Lather, rinse, repeat, until Gus dies or runs out of people to sweet-talk. Now he has a big bill to pay but if he had paid the taxes along the way he wouldn't be having this problem. I know why Gus doesn't want to pay the food tax - he's posted signs in the shop which give it away. He feels he pays too much for ingredients already and he's always worried that he has to charge so much for ice cream which meets his quality standards that people will stop buying it. (Ask him about the New England milk price controls if you dare, but prepare for an explosion.) But not paying the employee stuff is just unacceptable. Furthermore most of the "Gus is an ass" stories I've heard, Robert, come from his employees, whom he apparently is a jerk to.

In my personal experience with Gus he has had a split personality. I've encountered him on good days when he's friendly and solicitous and talkative, and I've encountered him on bad days when he really projects, "get out of my sight, I don't want your business and you're wasting my time."

[haineux.livejournal.com]

1) I remember the moment Tosci's jumped the shark for me. It was when I walked in and saw cans of GUAR GUM sitting about. GUAR GUM is used for two reason: a) to prevent ice crystallization (completely unnecessary for a shop like Tosci's), and b) to extend the amount of product you get.

These days, even Haagen Dazs doesn't use guar gum.

Also, one of the reasons that the NYT claimed Tosci's was world's best is because there were these dicksize wars between different ice cream shops over who had the best vanilla. Shops were claiming that they flew down to south america personally to select the vanilla pods they would use.

2) I have been off and on mad at Tosci's because for something like a decade, they sold shirts that said "Chocolate #3 (Dark)" -- but not the ice cream to go with it. I'd ask politely every once in a while, and there was always some excuse. Gus once told me that I could order a batch (5 gallons) and he'd make it. I tried to, but no.

Nowadays I console myself with Haagen Dasz "Amazon Valley Chocolate" which is simply amazing, and has a perfect ingredient list. I also have my own chocolate recipe which is really damn good, and Maida Heatter's "World's Best Hot Fudge" recipe, which is pretty close to Tosci's fudge. So there's that.

I will miss all the crazy flavors, though. I already miss waiting in line in a blizzard to buy ice cream.

[nonelvis]

That chocolate truffle ice cream recipe I made last year was damned close to Chocolate #3, and it's easy enough to make Vienna Finger cookie ice cream, my all-time favorite Tosci's flavor. But just knowing that they aren't there any more is a little upsetting. And dammit, I'm at MIT all weekend and now I can't get a microsundae!

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

I never really liked Toscis--all their ice cream is brown, I like other flavors--but the microsundaes are GENIUS.