In July, my longtime friend Tyson Devore and his wife Nikki Moore made their dreams come true. They opened up Chubby’s Fantastic Flavors in “the heart of Southwest,” Nikki says, at 59th and Baltimore. Tyson and I grew up together in the neighborhood. We both loved going to Mr. Matt’s up on Chester Avenue for homemade ice cream.
“One of the proudest moments of us opening was when four generations came to get ice cream at the same time.” — Tyson Devore
Tyson and Nikki are doing Mr. Matt and the neighborhood proud with their new operation. I haven’t had ice cream this creamy and delicious in a long time. There’s a pint of their banana pudding flavor in my freezer, and I’m trying to eat only one spoonful a night.
Tyson calls himself “a chubby dude with the good food.” Twenty years ago, he ran a celebrity barber shop at 16th and South. His clients included Ryan Howard (who came to him as a rookie; Tyson watched him help revive baseball’s popularity among African American youth in Philly), MLB Hall of Famer Kenny Lofton, Usher, Sixer Andre Igoudala and Ginuwine. A few years later, Tyson got caught up in the streets, and ended up in federal prison.
Now he’s back home. Chubby’s is proof that you can come back and achieve success.
Tyson has always wanted to be in the ice cream business. “I was seven years old when I saw a small ice cream churn in my mom’s kitchen,” he says, “I asked her, ‘Can you show me how to make it?’ And she showed me how to do it, and how it’s still relevant today.” He also went to school right next to the old Breyer’s factory on Woodland Avenue. His class would go there often on field trips. “I was infatuated with how they made ice cream on a larger scale.” Peach was his favorite.
Today, peach cobbler is one of Chubby’s most popular flavors. They also make strawberry shortcake, and that banana pudding — with Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies. All organic milk. Real cane sugar. And a cup or cone or sundae costs you half what you pay at other ice cream shops.
The shop pays homage to Augustus Jackson, the great Philadelphia “father of ice cream,” who perfected the dessert in the early 19th century. Jackson was a chef in the White House for four presidents. His confectionery and ice cream business at 2nd and Market was so successful, it made him one of the richest men in Philly. He also invented the ice cream scoop. Devore and Moore plan to remind their customers of this legacy by installing a mural about African Americans’ role in ice cream history.
“We get so many customers that come in and say, Wow. This is real ice cream. Not ice milk. Ice cream,” says Nikki. “It’s different from what they’re selling up the street.”
Chubby’s has a good spot, on an original Philadelphia highway, across the street from a vocational high school and a KIPP middle school — the old Turner middle school — near Cobbs Creek Park.
“Being from Southwest, we wanted to put something in Southwest. That’s where our roots are from: We were born and raised in Southwest,” says Tyson.
“We have a lot of other businesses that don’t give back or give that community vibe, these smoke shops and stuff like that,” he adds, “I’m not saying they don’t have a place in business, because this is America. Everybody has a chance to express their business and entrepreneurial dream. But I feel like we needed something that people could be proud of.”
“One of the proudest moments of us opening was when four generations came to get ice cream at the same time. We had a great-grandfather, grandfather, father, grandson all come and get ice cream together. They all walked here. That took me back, like, Wow, I remember: That’s community.”
West Philly born and raised with a slosh of Brooklyn, New York in between, Big Rube partnered with Mitchell & Ness in 2000 to help make it a global brand marketing and selling high-end vintage jerseys. He has been photographing Philly since 2009, including in a Daily News Column from 2011 to 2017. He’s also a chef, operating Chef Big Rube’s Kitchen seven days a week at Pitcher’s Pub in Manayunk, selling the best handmade food in a Main Street dive bar.
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