Winner, Winner, Ice Cream for Dinner!
How much does Melanie Ver of San Franciso love going to Shaws for ice cream? She named her dog Mitchell! Check that. It's actually Michele. Nonetheless, Melanie is straight out of central casting as the inaugural winner of our Pint of the Month Club trivia contest in our May newsletter: Melanie's late father, Alfonso, a physician, would often bring Mitchell's Ice Cream home after a long day at his medical practice, or wait in line with his young daughter for a cone after a family dinner on the town.
Melanie's mother, Becky, still enjoys a scoop or two of Rocky Road. So there inevitably will be two spoons digging into the quart of Mitchell's Flavor of the Month -- a flavor not featured on our year-round menu of 17 Mitchell's offerings -- that Melanie brings home from Shaws for the next year as a reward for her trivia savvy.
First up: Peach, one of Mitchell's summer-only offerings . . . and our June Flavor of the Month!
If you have yet to enter our monthly trivia contest (which started in March with a $50 gift certificate giveaway), take heart: You don't have to buck lottery odds to emerge from the pack with your own Pint of the Month membership. Melanie was one of just 17 entrants last month, and just one of four who made it into our May drawing with the correct answer.
While we like to make our trivia questions challenging (not an easy task when everyone has Google at their fingertips) May's question from our Giants-themed CandyLand newsletter will go down as an epic stump:
When Douglas Shaw opened his West Portal store, what was the name of the Giants' home stadium?
It's unlikely that anyone was tripped up on the date that Shaw opened his doors: 1931 is all over our website, labeling and other branding. But it was knowing that year that likely got most of our contest entrants turned around: 1931 also was the year that Seals Stadium -- the minor league stadium located in San Francisco's Mission District for nearly three decades -- opened for business. Some 70% of our entrants took the bait, entering "Seals Stadium" as their answer.
Yes, the Giants did play in Seals Stadium for two seasons, 1958-59, after their hasty cross-country relocation to San Francisco left them without a proper home until the completion of Candlestick Park for the 1960 season. But in 1931, the year in question, the Giants were one of three major league franchises located in New York City and played their home games in Manhattan's Polo Grounds (the correct answer), renowned for having the most expansive outfield in the major leagues.
We'd love to tell you that our June trivia question (located a few scrolls south) is easier, but what fun would that be? We're hoping that a monthly quart of a unique Mitchell's flavor for a year, a $96 value, is incentive aplenty to flex your mental muscles.
It was for Melanie, who got a full serving of Shaws' nostalgia when she came to the shop to pick up her Pint of the Month card: The man in front of her ordered Macapuno, which is made from coconuts imported from the Phillipines. That was the favorite flavor of her father, who was of Filipino-Spanish descent.
If trivia isn't your thing, might we suggest a workaround in obtaining your very own Pint of the Month Club? We'll knock 22% off the card's actual value and usher you to the front of the line with just a click. Stop trying to keep track of all the birthdays and graduations and major life events of those in your orbit: Give the gift that says "I've got you" 12 times a year!
