All Chill: A Hip Hop Ice Cream Shop is now open in Leimert Park, and the L.A. Sentinel sat down with owners Genelle and Julian Petty to discuss their journey in launching this new business.
Being proud Howard University alums, the Pettys have intersected their love for ice cream with community and hip hop, giving the Sentinel insight on their thought process in developing this multifaceted business.
With hip hop being such a stronghold of the Black community, the Pettys noted, “The grand gesture of All Chill is helping the community, economic development, and having a safe space. All Chill is an ice cream shop, but it is also our museum.
“It is a cultural institution and opens a discussion about our culture, our language, our fashion and the artists’ expression and we get to explore through a spot of joy which is ice cream. Ice cream is a connector. It is multigenerational and we are bringing it to an area we think needs it. It is educational and it is history.”
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Julian Petty’s love for hip hop not only stretches into All Chill’s culture, but also into his professional world as an entertainment lawyer. After he and Genelle got married post-Howard, they wanted to find a way to continue to integrate his passion for hip hop into his life.
Being in the music industry, Julian has become an avid collector of hip hop memorabilia and artifacts, from records to clothing, books, flyers, and rare photos. With such special items, Genelle came up with the idea of opening a hip hop ice cream shop to find a place for his collection to be seen and celebrated.
Describing the hip hop influence as an ode to his New York upbringing, Julian recalled, “Growing up, where I lived was heavily influenced by hip hop, and in Long Island, we had De La Soul, Public Enemy, Rakim and I got to see and interact with many of them as a child, so I was super ingratiated in hip hop culture and I just kept that with me.”
With Genelle’s roots in the View Park/Baldwin Hills area, she as well as Julian have created an even closer relationship to the Leimert Park community since opening the shop. An interior design extraordinaire, she has her own interior design business – BPC Interior Design.
She noted, “We’ve made connections with everybody in the community, and I have been a designer in people’s homes and businesses, shaping their homes and environments for 13 years and none of that has connected me more than I have as having an ice cream shop.”
The Pettys commitment to fostering community stretches across many areas, especially around collaborating with other local businesses in the neighborhood. They ensure that they are doing research about who they are sourcing ingredients from, who they hire, and allowing other vendors space in the store to be introduced to wider audiences.
All Chill’s ice cream is made from the highest quality ingredients, and they make what they believe Black bodies deserve. Having organic products available for the community to enjoy is important to the enterprising couple.
“We operate to serve our community, and to be something we want here, the support has been awesome, and I never thought something like ice cream would connect me to so many people from every walk of life and it has. It is rewarding,” said Genelle.
All Chill strives to create more ways for the community to really engage in discourse about hip hop culture with book signings, salons and panels held at the shop. The Pettys aim to use their entrepreneurial knowledge to open more shops in the future and cultivate more ways for the community to learn and connect through hip hop culture while reveling in the joy ice cream.
All Chill is now open four days a week, Thursday to Sunday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Visit the shop at 3415 W. 43rd Pl., in Los Angeles and their website at https://www.allchillinc.com/.
