Ice Cream Shop With Hip Hop Flavor

Galen Moorer Jr.’s is the owner of Happy Day Dessert Factory, located on the North Side of Pittsburg. His grandmother, Gwendolyn Moorer, is known by their family for singing “Oh Happy Day”. A classic tune that we've all come to know.

As a result, when it came time for Moorer to name newly founded venture, he knew immediately what to call it.

Happy Day Dessert Factory makes everything in-house, from the ice cream to waffle cones to cookies and brownies. They also sell funnel cakes and soft pretzels. The shop has 50 flavors of hard ice cream, from banana cream pie to chocolate chip cookie dough, as well as frozen soft custard and frozen yogurt. The non-dairy and vegan options include almond milk soft serve and water ices in five flavors.

The budding ice cream shop has created innovative ways to appeal to customers. The young entrepreneur had been thinking about opening his own shop since he was 17 years old. It almost seemed as if he was going to follow in his father's footsteps, who owned and Italian ice franchise called Rita's.

As they geared toward their grand opening with high hopes in early 2020, an unexpected road block took the world by storm, known as COVID. The timing couldn't have been more terrible, but they made the best of a bad situation, and continued to receive positive responses.

Jordan Rooney was one of such people giving positive feedback for the startup business. He is also the founder and CEO of Build Different Creative, a rising branding agency. Seeing the business he supported struggling due to COVID, he decided to reach out and offer his services.

Rooney proposed that Moorer put a twist two popular flavors and market them through two notable individuals with booming social media influence and presence.

The first flavor, Cookie$ and Crème, is named for Will Dzombak, the co CEO of Taylor Gang with Wiz Khalifa. He's also Wiz Khalifa's manager. Dzombak’s Cookie$ and Crème has yellow food coloring and chocolate swirls for a black and yellow look. A big show of homage to Wiz Khalifa's old hit single, Black and Yellow.

A second flavor – Fedd The God French Vanilla — has a hint of light blue food coloring. It was inspired by Taylor Gang artist Fedd The God, whose signature attire has a light blue hue. The 27-year-old North Pittsburg native collaborated with Khalifa on “Yea Yup!”, a song that was released this year and has gaining notable traction.

Moorer says he will see how the new flavors sell, and if they do well, he's looking to create more collaboration flavors.