Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Nelson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We can’t go into 7th Avenue without briefly talking about the origin of Browns Ice Cream. Our grandfather Wade Nelson packed ice cream on 7th Street, in St Paul in the early 1950’s to 1963. In 1963 he purchased Browns Ice Cream on East Lake Street. In 2011 Patrick Nelson decided that Browns needed to add a product line to the Browns Ice Cream trucks during the winter months too offset the decline in ice cream sales. Patrick Nelson created 7th Street Pizza as an ode to our grandfather however that was short lived as he received a Cease-and-Desist letter from Speedway stores in Ohio claiming the rights to the name due to their deli being named 7th Street Deli. Rather than battling the corporate lawyers Patrick pivoted real quick to and changed the name to 7th Avenue Pizza. This is how 7th Avenue pizza was born and the history of the reason why, and the name.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In the 11 years that 7th Avenue has been around the biggest obstacles and challenges have been shelve space at the stores and changing consumer behavior. What we’ve learned is patience and too keep the shelves full and the product fresh because you never know who is going to try it out and love it! We finally caught our big break when Paul “Meatsauce” Lambert randomly took a picture of himself holding up a 7th Avenue Pizza at Lunds and Byerly’s saying “This pizza Wails” and sent it out on Twitter. This has been the break/game changer the brand needed. We reached out to Paul immediately and introduced ourselves and brought pizza to the Power Trip. About 1 week later we became the “Official Frozen Pizza of the Power Trip Morning Show” on KFAN radio. This has been the best thing that has happened to 7th Avenue Pizza in its 11 year history. We have increased our distribution immensely over the past 9 months. To find out where you can find 7th Avenue Pizza please check out our website www.7thavenuepizza.com Our Social Media specifically on Twitter has seen over a 3000% increase with a highly engaged audience.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Browns Ice Cream?
Browns ice cream was founded in 1963 by Wade Nelson. When Wade retired in 1987 his two sons Bob and Tim Nelson became owners of Browns Ice Cream. Bob recently retired in January of 2021 which Tim Nelson continues to run Browns Ice Cream with his son Patrick Nelson and Bob’s son Matt Nelson. Patrick and Matt Nelson will continue to run the family business as 3rd generation owners. Browns is the industry leader in Minnesota specializing in Direct Store Delivery (DSD) of Ice cream and Pizza distribution. Our main retail partners are Holiday, Speedway, Walgreens and Lunds & Byerlys, and hundreds of independent store operators. We are the main distributor of Kemp’s, Unilever (Ben & Jerry’s), M&M Mars, Helados Mexico fruit bars, and our own pizza brand 7th Avenue Pizza and countless other brands. Browns is consistently recognized for our outstanding service to our retail customers which is a true pillar to our success.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
We believe we are positioned very well for the foreseeable future due to our relationships with both our retail and vendor partners. We see DSD service as a key to the future mainly due to the lack of employment at most retail outlets. We believe if we can take away the headache of having to put away deliveries at the store level, our employees with play that role for you. Add to all of this is our continued growth and distribution of 7th Avenue Pizza will hopefully secure the future of the 4th generation of Nelson’s to run Browns Ice Cream.
Contact Info:
- Website: 7thavenuepizza.com
- Instagram: 7thavenuepizza
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/7thavenueza
- Twitter: @7thavenuepizza
