“The first thing to say is, there’s some fun to it. Just trying to think of what is distinctive in the culture that people enjoy, but the serious piece of it is those that are linked to tourism — linked to holidays,” he said.

He said he didn’t know if there is something distinctive about North Carolina ice cream that’s different from ice cream elsewhere, but he thinks that the proposal could still be significant.

“It’s part of our civic fabric to try to elevate items, icons, that we enjoy or have some meaning to people. But they can get out of hand too, they can get a little too silly,” Guillory said.

Allison Nichols, a partner at Maple View Farm Ice Cream, was happy that ice cream is being recognized.

“We love to see anytime that people are going to pay attention to actual dairy products like milk and ice cream,” she said, referring to the bill. “We would be more excited if Maple View Farm ice cream was the official frozen dessert of the state, but we were tickled to see that in the paper.”

Nichols also mentioned some of the things about ice cream at Maple View specifically that support ice cream’s significance to North Carolina.

“We are proud and honored to be able to produce quality ice cream to serve to the people in our community and in North Carolina who choose to visit us,” she said. “We try very hard with what we make to use as many local North Carolina products as possible, and we are honored that what we serve could potentially be the dessert of North Carolina, even though it’s not brand specific.”

Though the bill already passed the N.C. House, Guillory wasn’t sure how likely the bill is to pass altogether, and said there was debate in the past about designating the Plott Hound as the official dog of North Carolina. On the other hand, he said, “Who’s going to vote against ice cream?”

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