2 weeklypress.com • ucreview.com • april 3, 2013 Pipe Dream? continued from page 1


delphia Food Coop scene, spoke to the press this morning from the floor of the Coop saying, “We’re always looking for ways to improve our array of offer- ings to the community, but we’re also cognizant of how we source those offerings.


This new construction proj- ect will not only bring soft serve ice cream to Mariposa shoppers, but it will require zero fossil fuel emissions to get it here, which is ground- breaking.” Lead Project Manager of


the project Violet LeViot ex- pounded on the eco-friend- ly design: “We wanted zero emissions, no excuses.


COMMON GROUND


Happy 25th Anniversary


from One Venerable


University City Institution to another.


Lindsay Johnston


Broker of Record ~Common Ground Realtors 215-222-2300


www.oncommonground.com


So I reached out to Drexel University’s Engineering Department for help. I ex- plained to them something I saw last year while visit- ing the Dr Bronner’s Soap manufacturing facility in Escondido, California. They fill all the bottles without machines using only the force of gravity. When ready for bottling, the liquid soap, positioned in tanks above the bottles on a conveyor belt, is fed through a se- ries of tubes without any electricity whatsoever. We were fortunate to find an Ice Cream provider whose facility is located at a higher altitude than our grocery store.” Drexel Engineers made short work of the problem. “We put the end of the tube located at Little Baby’s Ice Cream’s manufacturing facility above the end lo- cated at the Mariposa Food Coop,” explained Ross Meunstermont, the Drexel Post-Doctoral candidate in charge of the blueprints. “Being underground, it stays at an appropriate food-safe temperature. The curves in the trajectory of the pipeline not only were necessary for the partner- ship’s quality assurance measures down in south Philly, but they also help avoid underground Septa


L-R — Jeffrey Ziga (Director of Public Relations of Little Baby’s Ice Cream), Ross Meunstermont (Drexel


University Engineering), and Bull


Gervasi (CEO of Mariposa, Inc) pose in front of Mariposa’s newly acquired Electro-Freeze Soft Serve Ice Cream Unit


tunnels, the old Masonic Temple’s catacombs, and they actually serve to con- tinue the churning process of the ice cream, ensuring it arrives appropriately light and fluffy, like a new baby bunny rabbit’s fur.” Geography made routing underneath the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia easy, as was the decision for both Mariposa and Little Baby’s to allow the hospital to tap into the pipeline, al- lowing young patients at the hospital a little treat during their stay. Enthusi- asm was high when the an- nouncement went out over


the hospital’s loudspeaker: “Excited? Oh come on what do you think?” one boy was quoted saying to his attend- ing doctor. “Wasabi” Pete Angevine, the Spicy Mustard-Covered Seed-Pod at Little Baby’s Ice Cream, is excited about the partnership and the benefit to C.H.O.P. “We’ve enjoyed a great relationship with Mariposa and we’re excited that both entities have decided to get in the zone, touch base with each other, and take it to a new level, a level which I would, I think rightly, characterize as: ‘next level’. This is Little


LOCAL & SUSTAINABLY GROWN PRODUCE, MEAT, DAIRY, PET, AND WELLNESS PRODUCTS


Featuring fresh organic, chemical-free, and conventional produce.


Baby’s first foray into soft serve ice cream, which we haven’t offered previously due to its softness, and also we couldn’t be more pleased about not having to drive all the way over there all the time. It’s far.” To accommodate every- one, two separate pipes will be used for Little Baby’s dairy-based and vegan soft serve ice creams, allowing for continual delivery of each product without all the sassy vegans getting all annoyed at everyone. While both pipes will travel the same route, only the pipe containing vegan ice cream will be opened for quality assurance purposes at Grindcore House, an all-vegan coffee shop in South Philadelphia. Dave Anthem, one of two owners explained: “We’re not inter- ested in the other one.” One pipe would reduce the cost of the project, but Jeffrey Ziga of Director of Public Relations at Little Baby’s Ice Cream explained, “we weren’t able to com- bine our dairy and vegan products successfully into one like Gianna’s Grille used to do. Their super secret proprietary ‘Quan- tum Casein’ technology is sadly lost to the ages. Our scientists have tried every- thing to replicate conditions in which our ingredients remain in dual “vegan “and “non-vegan” states of being until observed on a microscopic level, but it’s a slow process. We’re still maybe 5-10 years away from human trials.” In spite of the timetable, excitement is building. Tony “Point- less” Croasdale, Mariposa customer since the early 90’s familiar with Gianna’s famous fake dairy ingre- dients, was delighted to hear that such research was underway. “Bring It! Wall of Death the system which supports the vegan versus non-vegan binary!” he was quoted as saying, before hopping on a bicycle and riding away after a passing paddle of ducks.


HOURS: M-F 8AM—9PM SAT-SUN 9AM—9PM


4824 BALTIMORE AVE 215.729.2121 MARIPOSA.COOP


The pipeline, expected to cost about $1.3 million trillion dollars, is slated to be complete by spring 2014. “Faster if our Kickstarter fund-raising campaign hits the mark,” said Violet LeViot. “As a means to fund construction projects of this magnitude, Kickstarter is so hot right now.”


Bull Gervasi added. “Everyone is pitching in for rewards. I’m personally


continued on page 4


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16