A coin toss decided whose name came first on Baskin-Robbins
Two brothers-in-law in postwar Southern California bet that Americans were bored of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. Their promise of 31 flavours, one for every day of the month, grew into the largest ice cream shop chain on Earth, and the order of their surnames was settled by flipping a coin.
Irv Robbins had worked in his father's ice cream shop as a teenager, and Burt Baskin had churned ice cream for fellow sailors during the Second World War. In 1945 Robbins opened Snowbird Ice Cream in Glendale with 21 flavours, a startling range for the time, and a year later Baskin launched Burton's Ice Cream Shop in Pasadena. They expanded fast, from 6 shops in 1948 to more than 40 by 1949, when they bought a dairy in Burbank to control production.
In 1953 the advertising agency Carson-Roberts persuaded them to merge the separate identities into Baskin-Robbins 31 Ice Cream. The number promised a new flavour every day of any month, among the early ones Black Walnut and Coffee Candy, and it still hides inside the logo, where the B and R form a stylised 31. The shops broke with the old soda fountain model: they did not encourage customers to linger, decorated with clowns and pink and brown polka dots, and introduced the tiny tasting spoon that rivals later copied. Over the decades the company has launched more than 1,400 flavours, adding vegan and non-dairy options in 2019.
Ownership changed hands repeatedly. The founders sold to the United Fruit Company in 1967, shortly before Baskin died, for an estimated 12 million dollars. After a partial stock market listing in 1972, J. Lyons and Co. bought the whole business, and it passed through Allied-Lyons and Allied Domecq before sitting inside Dunkin' Brands alongside Dunkin' Donuts. Private equity firms including Bain Capital acquired that group in 2006 after the chain struggled early in the decade, and Inspire Brands bought it in December 2020.
Abroad, expansion began in the 1970s with Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Australia. By 2025 there were more than 7,800 shops across dozens of countries, serving local favourites such as Red Bean and Litchi Gold, and in much of Asia customers simply call the brand 31. Its former employees include Chris Buck and, more surprisingly, Barack Obama.
Source: Baskin-Robbins
