If you were to ask Mark Thompson about the grand opening of his store, the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, he would have envisioned it completely different from what actually transpired.

He took a chance on where he opened the store, for starters. The former fireboat house building needed a fresh coat of paint, and complete renovations from tail to toe. "For years, this part of New York was considered the rock bottom," he told a group of bloggers who visited the store on a trip. "From Red Hook all the way to Greenpoint, this was not the place people wanted to visit."

The fact that Thompson took a chance on the old ferry terminal says a lot about his vision and chutzpah. As Brooklyn's DUMBO area transitioned over time, it became well known for its water purification system. In the 1960s, the Kennedy administration started the water purification laws in the country, and New York "was really the last port to develop its water," says Thompson.

But today, DUMBO is well known for the quality of its water. So well known, in fact, that it's what sets apart Thompson's ice cream from the pack (among technique, excellent freezers and impeccable maintenance). This space was landmarked in the late 1970s and when it became available they were starting to unite the waterfront property in New York City. It was originally a fireboat house station, and then a firehouse. Since the city was in dire financial straits in the 1970s, they chose to close the fire station and that particular building was scheduled to be knocked down. "It was the same people who sought to build in the middle of Brooklyn Heights that kept this open," says Townsend.

So he purchased the building but did not open it to customers until 2001 since it took him four years to go through the permitting process to get a landmark for the business. "There were a lot of people who were upset that someone was going to open a business and make money on –God forbid –a city property," he says.

Thompson's grand opening was supposed to be on Sept. 12, 2001. "I gave away ice cream that Labor Day, we put a card outside, I said just give me two or three days to call it a grand opening on Sept. 12th."

After the September 11 tragedy, Thompson's dream seemed to fizzle into thin air. That particular area had so many Red Cross workers and the office of Emergency Management –which was in the Trade Center–set up in a building there (this has now been knocked down). "It's hard to explain…business wise, I was a nervous wreck," says Thompson. "But when such a tragedy happens it puts everything into perspective. Here I am selling ice cream."

So he did the right thing to do. He started giving away ice cream to those who wanted it. "I saw the strangest thing that happened to my business," he says. After 9/11, no media outlet was writing anything good about the area. It was- -understandably–such drastic news. Because of his sweet spot story, Thompson had a slew of media attention, from The New York Times to Food & Wine Magazine who all wanted news stories.

The fact that Thompson had a sweet spot and a sweet story in the middle of all this mess helped him rather than hindered him. While he couldn't "officially" open in September, he kept thinking that he should still go ahead with the store opening in October. "From October 15, 2011 till today, it's been on an uphill swing ever since." It was a nice little "engine that could" story in a bad time and I'm so thrilled it all worked out for him.

It ended up working out for Thompson and today the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is well known and well loved, serving eight varieties of Ice Cream that don't pretend to be anything fancy. So you won't see any Chunky Monkey or Rocky Road combinations but the friendly staff can create anything you want out of their staples of strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, butter pecan and other flavors.

Thompson's goal was never to do anything too fancy. He wanted to make "Classic American-style flavor" ice cream, and he chose the eight flavors and has not had to change them once since the opening. 60 percent of his sales come from vanilla, chocolate and strawberry (70 percent of ice cream sales in the U.S. are vanilla ice cream—-if it ain't broke, don't fix it). "If you can't make vanilla right, don't try to make 50 or 60 other flavors," he says. He's got a point. If the foundation is solid, people will come.

His vision was of creating a place that was classic and tried and true, using the best ingredients and techniques. I tried the Chocolate Ice Cream on a Waffle Cone and I was taken by the real, genuine creaminess and the lack of any preservative or artificial sugar taste at all. This was genuinely good stuff.

A true "phoenix rising from the ashes" story.

The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory has two locations:

Brooklyn Heights    (718) 246-3963
Greenpoint   (718) 349-2506

The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory was a former firehouse

The group of bloggers who went to the Ice Cream Factory

The very hip, very retro entrance

Mark Thompson, owner of the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, originally scheduled the store to open on 9/12/2001

I so want this sign in my house!

"As Healthy as Chocolate Gets" sounds good to me

Who doesn't love hot chocolate and waffle cones?

Everything is better with chocolate ice cream!

Even Maria from The Culturist thinks so…

I felt a bit weird trekking to Brooklyn and staying there for two days to explore the neighborhood. Let me explain, the burrough and I don't really know each other. In fact, the only reason why  I haven't had much of a love affair with Brooklyn is because I had dismissed it as a residential landmass, even though I didn't know anything about it.

I have several friends who live in the area who had constantly voiced their love for their locale. Since there's a saying that goes, "the more you know, the more you want to know," I decided that this visit would be just what the travel doctor ordered for the skeptic residing in Weehawken, NJ.

Luckily for me, I had experts who really knew what they were talking about to ease me into Brooklyn-ese. We were in the expert hands of Dom Gervasi who started Made in Brooklyn Tours. Dom, a born and bred Brooklynite, knows the area like the back of his phone, and is a licensed NYC Sightseeing Guide.

Made in Brooklyn Tours leader Dom Gervasi (left)

Dom's love for Brooklyn is very obvious. A soft spoken leader with a true passion for showing others the gems of his stomping grounds, he tells us of the history of the popular area that you see in the pictures.

This used to be a former Navy Yard, he explains. "It was historically called Fulton Ferry Landing." The name DUMBO emerged in 1978, at the time when there was a surge of artists in Manhattan. During the late 1970s, manufacturers were leaving the New York City area (in places like SoHo and Tribeca) and moving elsewhere to find less expensive rentals. But since the buildings they left were empty spaces–voids with little use –the building landlords decided to be smart about putting it to good use. So they started renting out the buildings to the burgeoning artists.

This made sense to me since the SoHo, Tribeca and DUMBO areas were typically associated with artists and artist lofts.

A view of the popular The River Cafe, and Brooklyn Bridge

The landlords started making the artist residences pretty hip, and went into a lot of empty buildings to tinker with them and do renovations. But as human nature would inevitably have it, the landlords started getting greedy and raised the prices on these manufacturing residences. Well, the artists living in the DUMBO area at the time (it wasn't called DUMBO then) were a  bit concerned that the spike in rent in New York would affect them as well, so they banded together and decided to have an unpalatable name so no one would want to move here. Their first idea was to call the area DUMB (Down Under Manhattan Bridge) to detract others from paying a visit to the area and living there. But they (thankfully) added an O (for Overpass) at the end.  An alternatively name was Down Around the Navy Yard Annex–but DUMBO works much better.

Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Somehow, it sounds just right.

The artists' efforts worked only for a little while, and it would be only a few years later when smart and savvy investors started to recognized the potential of the area. One of the biggest purveyors of the land were the Valentis family –both David and Jane Valentis (we'll talk more about them in a future post).  

A view of Manhattan & Brooklyn Bridge from the ferry landing

My weekend journey to DUMBO started off with brisk walk to the former Fulton Ferry Landing, an area where you can get a spectacular view of downtown Manhattan, including the One World Trade Center, the Frank Gehry building and of course, the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges.

I inhaled the fresh air and walked briskly, hearing the pleasant sea-side sounds of seagulls and activity. The blogger group I went with were a lively bunch, and chirped in their love for Brooklyn. What is really interesting to note is how far along DUMBO has come in terms of its expansion. "This area was really declining in terms of industry," explains Gervasi "and fortunately some people were coming here and looking at the area and saying there's so much promise here." Now, you'd be lucky to get a piece of the real estate action, especially if you wanted to live in a building with such impressive views as what you see above. And this area is a haven for artists, featuring movies and music. Barge Music, a popular floating music series, is held right there on the pier, off the former Fulton Ferry Landing.

It is hard not to be completely in awe of the expansive view, cafe-lined streets and what I would describe as a truly bohemian artist vibe. DUMBO is a region that every visitor –or New Yorker– should visit.

To reach Made in Brooklyn Tours, contact:

Dom Gervasi

Made in Brooklyn Tours

Phone: 718 355 9263

This is the first post in a series of posts about DUMBO and Brooklyn. A big thank you to the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott for sponsoring the tour.

Today's photo of the day is once again of—you guessed, it –Wisconsin! After my recent trip, I could not help marvel at the pristine quality of snow-covered terrain, especially the sweeping spruce trees. One such giant (almost Gulliver-like) spruce tree stood in our way as the group hiked on Rib Mountain State Park.

Several branches stood, imperturbable and laced with snow. But the spruce trees seemed to make fun of the bare trees because of their generous evergreen leaves. This is a slightly overexposed photo (the glare of the sun plus the snow makes for some truly white on white) but the essence of that moment is still very much alive.

Spruce trees at Rib Mountain State Park, January 2011