Baskin-Robbins to celebrate 70 years with local ceremony

Dec. 4, 2015 10:21 PM PT

Baskin-Robbins opened its first location in Glendale 70 years ago this month. It’s now headquartered in Canton, Mass., as part of the Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc., but its flagship store and training center is still nearby in Burbank.

That’s where the company plans to celebrate its birthday Tuesday from 1 to 5 p.m., with “throwback” prices, live entertainment and special guests. An ice cream cake-cutting ceremony is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. at the 1201 S. Victory Blvd. location.

Members of the Baskin family will be on hand, as will Burbank Mayor Bob Frutos. There will also be face-painting, balloons, giveaways, gift cards, T-shirts and ice cream scoops. One guest could win a year of free ice cream.

The party for the ice cream shop famous for its 31 flavors will feature 31-cent ice cream scoops, $1.31 root beer floats and two-scoop sundaes as well as $3.31 banana splits. There will also be a 31% discount on all ice cream cakes, including a new polar bear cake with Oreo-cookie ears.

Since its founding in 1945, the company has created more than 1,300 ice cream flavors, according to an announcement for the birthday event. The company is known for its “flavor of the month,” which for December features chocolate ice cream filled with cool mint Oreo cookie pieces and dark peppermint-fudge ribbon trails.

Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland

Chad Garland

Chad Garland covered the city of Burbank and Bob Hope Airport for the Burbank Leader until 2016. Previously, he has covered Arizona’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., for Cronkite News Service and Oregon’s Legislature for the Associated Press. His work investigating questionable veterans’ charities as part of the award-winning News21 national investigative project “Back Home” earned a “Best in Business” award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2013. Before becoming a reporter, he spent more than a decade in various assignments related to national defense. An Illinois native, his first California address was at Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego. He has degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Arizona State University, as well as a diploma from the Army’s Defense Language Institute in Monterey, where he learned to speak Russian.