Minimelts Ice Cream Minimelts and A Means To A Vend A Means To a Vend

About Barry Bass

Barry Bass

Barry Jay Bass was one of the first to market and distribute cryogenically processed ice cream in 1993 and helped pioneer the industry to its immense popularity today.

From one ice cream cart and a few storage freezers in his garage he built one of the largest and most successful distributorships in the country.

Barry sold his ice cream on weekends at festivals and street fairs throughout the Atlanta area and before long found he enjoyed selling beads of ice cream a lot better than office furniture. Within six months he quit his job and plunged fulltime into his exciting new business.

From there he opened his first major concession at Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park, a huge southern attraction and then his first shopping mall kiosk in North Point Mall.

The business exploded and Barry quickly expanded into other malls and other parks, all the while continuing to operate his mobile festival concessions as well as an entire catering program which he built around the product.

Each opportunity brought with it a variety of logistical challenges and Barry became an expert at meeting those challenges. He designed custom carts and kiosks and themed them to the venues as well as several in-line mall concepts.

His greatest challenge was the 1996 Summer Olympic Games where he developed and managed every aspect of 20 strategic locations throughout the Metro Atlanta area.

The Olympics were a huge success and learning experience and from there he continued to develop successful concessions at venues such as Six Flags Over Georgia, Lake Lanier Islands Beach and Water Park, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia World Congress Center, Gwinnett Civic Center, Georgia Dome, Coca Cola Lakewood Amphitheatre to name a few.

In 2001 he launched a cotton candy company which he later sold in order to develop a line of customized candies, chocolates and other confections using patented food imaging technology.

In 2010 his long time friend Shawn Kilcoyne purchased the exclusive rights to Mini Melts USA and they joined forces to market this incredible product. Barry launched A Means to a Vend, Inc. in order to distribute Mini Melts in the New York area and to assist others to develop their own Mini Melts businesses, whether it be a single concession stand, a major theme park or a regional distributorship.

Barry is a wealth of knowledge and ideas and enjoys working with young entrepreneurs and helping people to realize their dreams of running a successful business venture.