[John Philis, third-generation owner of The Lexington Candy Shop in New York City, making a Coke float]
John Philis (interview): “We went viral with Coca-Cola floats.”
[Philis scooping ice cream for the float]
John Philis (interview): “When the Coke went viral. Tik Tok or influencers, whatever you want to call it, it went viral. We did not know what was going on, was involved. Basically, like look at these crowds. And we ran out of we ran out of ice cream, we ran out of Coca-Cola syrup. But we’re very resourceful and we were able to get it the next day and everything. And that was August 12th of 2022.”
[Tik Tok video that sent the Coke float viral]
[A diner sign and a line of people waiting to get in]
John Philis (interview): “So that was 3:00 in the afternoon. At 330, 4:00, people started lining up and it’s like, what’s going to happen here? And the next day it was a Saturday. 8:00a we opened up, people coming in 8:00 in the morning for Coca-Cola floats.”
[Customers taking a selfie of the Coke float, drinking the float]
John Philis (interview): “We made it through Covid one way or another. We made it through Covid. 98 years, we’re still here. So we made it through. And it was starting back, back. But we did not not expect or know how much it was. It’s like a tidal wave. When they came in.”
[Philis making the Coke float]
John Philis (interview): “And we had to adjust our ordering. Like we would order once a week. Now we get our shipments of ice cream or Coca-Cola three or four times a week.”
[Philis making the Coke float]
[Dominique Ansel, Creator of the Cronut, putting icing on the Cronut]
Dominique Ansel (interview): “My name is Dominique Ansel, and I’m the inventor of the Cronut.”
[Ansel putting icing on the Cronut]
Dominique Ansel (interview): “Well, I think when we when I created the Cronut and I put it in the store, like everything went viral, like right away. And at the time that was really one of the first before the social media wave. I think it was one of the first time like a pastry or even like food was going viral. It changed everything for us.”
[The bakery with a line of customers in 2013]
Dominique Ansel (interview): “So when we first launched the Cronut, we only had like four employees in the bakery, two in the kitchen and two barista. That’s it. So we were a very very lean team. This bakery, which is the original bakery. We created the Cronut. The kitchen is tiny. It’s probably ten feet by 12. It changed everything because we had to like, produce more. We had to hire more people.”
[A line of customers waiting for the original Cronut in 2013]
[Employees helping customers purchase the original Cronut in 2013]
Dominique Ansel (interview): “I think personally, like it showed me a lot of side of people that I wouldn’t seen without the Cronut. The good and the bad. I think it’s a very humbling experience for sure.”
[Ansel flipping the closed sign to open]
[A line of customers walking into the store being greeted by Ansel]
Dominique Ansel (interview): “So it was very overwhelming. I have to say, it’s not a feeling of like joy and happiness, the feeling of stress and pressure. You have to provide more. You have to keep the quality. You have to still give the customer service.”
[A plate of Cronuts and employees helping customers]
Dominique Ansel (interview): “It’s you know, a lot of people come to you and when things like this happen and go viral. A lot of people want to give you advice, they want to tell you what to do. They want to tell you how to run your business, how to run operations. I think the most important thing for me was to keep on doing what I wanted to do, which is keep the quality, keep the interaction with the guests and the customers experience and go from there. It was not like, you know, making money and expanding it and mass producing it like everyone was telling me to do.”
[A Cronut being cut in half]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.