Five years ago, Michael Concepcion and I were at Magnum Café, days before its opening while the entire team was in a mad scramble of meetings, trainings, and testings. He doesn’t remember that interview, but I managed to dig up the article I wrote. “This will only be up for 18 months,” he had said, “and then it will all come down.” I then wrote that “we’ve come to a point in society where we can afford a highly produced pop-up ice cream shop that will melt away next summer.” Today, the idea of temporary stores or revolving concepts occupying a single space is so well-established, they’ve become just another way to shop, but five years ago the phenomenon was novel enough to go all Jia Tolentino over it.
Throwing back to those heady Magnum days where Michael and company threw black-tie balls, appointed all their friends as ambassadors, and brought in Azealia Banks to perform at a strictly-by-invite only Forbes Park house party, one can see how much Michael has accomplished since, yet also how consistent he’s remained. “The direction was to change the perception of an ice cream,” he had said. Sure enough, Magnum, an ice cream bar on a stick—albeit a premium one—became a status symbol, the kind you could purchase at 7-11. You’d think it was dipped in gold from the way it was trending, and at the time, it was brilliantly manufactured hype.
