
Ice Cream Emergency has 16 busses running, mostly in the northeastern part of the United States.
This article is part of “Where Are They Now?”—an ongoing series in which Franchise Times managing editor Emilee Wentland and reporter Alyssa Huglen catch up with emerging brands.
At Ice Cream Emergency, employees put smiles on customers’ faces each shift; however, they “do get yelled at a lot,” CEO and founder Debra Arrato said.
“We tend to make ice cream sundaes pretty much bigger than your head,” Arrato said. “We get yelled at a lot: ‘No, I can’t do all that.’ Yes, you can.”
The 16-unit franchise is based in the northeastern United States, but “units” doesn’t mean a typical brick-and-mortar ice cream parlor. Ice Cream Emergency differentiates itself in the desserts category because each location is a fully mobile bus with enough space for about a dozen guests to wait inside for their giant sundaes.
For Arrato, owning an ice cream parlor has been a life-long aspiration she’s had since she was teenager. When she turned 50, she knew she needed to open her ice cream shop then or she never would. Now, it’s been 10 years of Ice Cream Emergency and about eight of franchising.
When Franchise Times last heard from the brand in 2021, it had five busses running.

Debra Arrato founded Ice Cream Emergency to fulfill her life-long dream of owning an ice cream shop.
The franchise caters events with packages ranging from a regular scoop of ice cream to giant sundaes with toppings like M&Ms, sprinkles, cherries, hot fudge, “you name it,” Arrato said.
And guests can have as much of any given topping as they’d like.
“I have to warn you, if you tell us that you like whipped cream … you will go out of there with this huge, huge bowl of whipped cream on top of your sundae. That’s one of our favorite things,” Arrato said.
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Busses are decked out in 1950s-esque ice cream parlor décor, like black and white checkered flooring. The investment range to open an Ice Cream Emergency territory is from $169,300 to $245,400.
Its group of franchisees are “basically a family” who understand that this business is about bringing joy into customers’ lives. That value is of the utmost importance to Arrato when it comes to finding new franchisees.

Ice Cream Emergency’s busses can accommodate about a dozen patrons inside.
“It’s not a money grab. We are very profitable, but it’s more about the quality of life that can be created and improved upon for your own family by the income that you bring in and the fact that you are making people happy and you make yourself happy,” she said.
Because the brand’s busses accommodate people inside it, Ice Cream Emergency franchisees can operate year-round in any weather, if they want.
Right now, Ice Cream Emergency’s franchisees are all single-unit owners, but a handful have expressed interest in adding another bus.
As a self-proclaimed ice cream fanatic, Arrato said she eats ice cream almost every day. “It’s probably the No. 1 food group for me,” she said.