Industry Retail Founded 1975 | Founder Robert Rook | |
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Area served UAE, Thailand, Hong Kong, USA, Taiwan China Products Ice cream, Chocolate, Hot fudge,smoothies Headquarters Boston, Massachusetts, United States Profiles | ||
Emack & Bolio's is a chain of ice cream stores based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The chain was founded by Robert Rook, a lawyer and self-declared hippie who has worked closely with the homeless, Vietnam war protesters, civil and gay rights advocates, and numerous rock bands such as Aerosmith, U2, Boston, The Cars, and James Brown. Emack and Bolio's was founded in 1975, three years before Ben and Jerry's used the concept of a hippie ice cream store. There are now a few stores in other states, including New York, Florida, and Illinois New Jersey, and Massachusetts. The first international locations opened in Bangkok, Thailand in 2014 and also in Abu Dhabi. A shop in Xian, China and Hong Kong opened in 2015. The mascot is now a red-eyed moose whose name is Stoney.
Name
The store was named after two homeless men for whom Robert Rook did pro bono work, who asked that the ice cream shop be named after them. Emack and Bolio were mascots of a sort for the first store.
The Bolios were a non-fraternal group of raggedy, long-haired hippy-type college students that attended Murray State University in Western Kentucky during the 1970-75 period. They played sports together, entered "greek" parades together, and partied together. They took there name from an old movie with a line in it where the police yelled into a building, "Come on out, you bolios, you". This account aligns with Robert Rook's reference to two homeless men in 1975, one of which was referred to as Bolio.
It has been noted that Emacs, text editing software popular with computer programmers, and BOLIO, a text-formatting program, were developed within walking distance of a store near MIT. The explanation by the GNU Emacs Project does not indicate a connection.