From searching for a way to sell “melting ice cream” to using breastmilk bags as packaging prototypes, CVT Soft Serve has an origin story fit for a Hollywood script. And that’s fitting since its fans helped propel the Tinsel Town startup from refurbished ice cream truck to over 5,000 stores and concert venues in just a decade.

This fall, CVT Soft Serve was named the grand prize winner of NFRA’s second annual Penguin Pitch: Emerging Brand Contest, created to spotlight up-and-coming brands reshaping the frozen and refrigerated categories in a “Shark Tank” style competition.

Judges praised CVT Soft Serve for its nostalgic taste, simple ingredients, and game-changing format. As Grand Prize winner, the emerging brand received a featured table at Café NFRA, during the 2025 convention in Orlando.

Founded as a food truck by Joe Nicchi in 2014, he initially brought soft serve to the streets of LA. In the decade since, Nicchi has scaled the business and is here to talk more about scaling soft serve and the cold foods business.

“I’m from upstate New York, where soft serve is prevalent – there’s a soft serve season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I moved to LA 26 years ago and I started complaining to my friends that there was no soft serve. After years of complaining, I opened out of frustration … we opened in 2014, out of a 1961 Mr. Softee ice cream truck,” Nicchi said.

Nicchi borrowed his dad’s family-recipe for the soft serve base and found a local dairy and co-packer willing to work with his small batch orders.

Meet Joe Nicchi, Founder of CVT Soft Serve

From searching for a way to sell “melting ice cream” to using breastmilk bags as packaging prototypes, CVT Soft Serve has an origin story fit for a Hollywood script.

“I had our first baby on the way – I had no money – so like a stereotypical entrepreneur, maxing out credit cards, taking out small business loans. I’m very type A so it was bizarre that I went this route, but I thought ‘I gotta try it’ and it just blew up,” Nicchi said. “We quickly became known as a celebrity catering business. The first truck got so busy with TV catering that we had to get another truck. We (still) have two trucks in LA.”

Customers eventually started asking for lids and taking the ice cream home, telling Nicchi that a few minutes out of the freezer allowed the product to soften up like it was fresh from the truck.

But the real change came when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos installed CVT Soft Serve machine in his house.

“A $15,000 ice cream machine – he put in his kitchen. I thought, ‘How can we get soft serve to everyone who can’t afford a commercial machine in his kitchen?’” Nicchi said.

Unused breast milk storage bags from the birth of his twins (Nicchi and his wife share four boys) were used as early packaging prototypes. Nicchi had a local prop master make a pouch, filled with beans, to help pitch his product.

It took the team over two years to figure out how to get the ice cream to soften just enough to retain a creamy taste and texture.

CVT Soft Serve launched at retail in 2023 with “LA mom-friendly ingredients,” at a few dozen Gelson’s stores. Shortly after, a meeting with Live Nation led to CVT being named its official ice cream and is now found at all the company’s U.S. venues.

In addition to CVT, three other brands earned honors in Penguin Pitch subcategories:

• Most Unique Promotional Campaign: Frönen, for its clean ingredients and nostalgic flavor.
• Most Disruptive Product: Jesse & Ben’s, praised for reintroducing tallow in a clean-label fry.
• Most Creative Packaging: Actual Veggies, with its bold color, educational design, and kid appeal.

The NFRA is a non-profit trade association representing all segments of the frozen and refrigerated foods industry, including its annual convention which focuses on strategic one-on-one business meetings, networking opportunities and product showcases.

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