Can you find this missing freeziemobile?
The owners of Geladona are looking for help to track down their ice cream bike, and there’s a reward for whoever does
In a bold, unsolicited act of “re-homing,” a vintage ice cream bike has disappeared—and its owners are trying to track it down before peak popsicle season.
Florenca Bortolacci and Mariana Palhares run Geladona, a Corso Italia café serving brunch, sandwiches and desserts. But the business started with a bike, which the pair pedalled around the city selling their artisanal Brazilian-style freezies. During the summer, it’s still Geladona’s (pedal-powered) engine: bringing in most of their revenue from selling ice pops in parks, at festivals and during street events.
After the freeziemobile vanished from their business partner’s porch earlier this month, they took their search to their socials. “We had so many people sharing—over 60,000 views—and it’s been seen a few times over the past few days,” says Bortolacci. The latest sightings place the bike somewhere in the Dovercourt-Bloor-Dufferin-Eglinton area.
The twist: this may not be an Ocean’s Eleven–style theft, so don’t get too excited. “My business partner’s landlord removed the bike without asking her, without talking to her, without so much as leaving a note,” says Bortolacci. “Now, he won’t talk to us—so we’re not sure if he sold it or what.”
This leaves one very conspicuous bike—a vintage Dickie Dee, freezer chest up front, custom-painted by graffiti artist Bruno Smoky—circulating the city. And they can’t just replace it: comparable models from the ’60s now list for as much as $16,000, a prohibitive price tag for a small business built on popsicles.
Related: An Etobicoke bar has been accused of buying and selling stolen alcohol
Palhares and Bortolacci aren’t blaming whoever currently has the bike. “The person riding it probably doesn’t even realize it’s stolen,” she says. Either they don’t know or they’re very bold to be pedalling a bright-yellow, fruit-adorned freezer on wheels through Toronto.
The pair is also offering a reward: a summer of Geladona for whoever returns the bike to its rightful home. Spot it and you could be having a very refreshing summer.
Caroline Aksich, a National Magazine Award recipient, is an ex-Montrealer who writes about Toronto’s ever-evolving food scene, real estate and culture for Toronto Life, Fodor’s, Designlines, Canadian Business, Glory Media and Post City. Her work ranges from features on octopus-hunting in the Adriatic to celebrity profiles.
