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Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Family-run Chinatown ice cream parlor · 2+ locations · NYC: Chinatown, Lower East Side

A Chinatown institution that never took outside money: Christina Seid runs the ice cream shop her father opened in 1978, a second generation behind the same counter. The family no longer owns the building, so the shop rents the storefront it made famous.

Founder-run

The Big Picture

Genuinely Independent

Christina Seid owns and runs the Chinatown ice cream parlor her father opened in 1978, a second generation with no outside capital in the business. As a two-shop operation it has little public labor or environmental track record to weigh, and it publishes no supplier list or sustainability commitments. The family answers to no investor, but it no longer owns the Bayard Street storefront it built its name in.

Let's Get Critical

Local ownership
9/10
Founder involvement
9/10
Worker pay & benefits
6/10
Environmental impact
6/10
Sourcing & labor
6/10

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Company data last updated August 2026

How does one person build and research all this? They don't: here's how it actually works. Verdicts are our opinions, based on the public sources cited above as of August 2026. Spotted something off? or learn more.