From a high school friendship: Bar Ape

Not knowing what success looked like turned out to be the greatest advantage Nick Genova and James Carnevale had.James was already deep in kitchens, drawn to the technical, almost scientific side of gelato. Nick was a freelance videographer and creative jack-of-all-trades, trying to find his footing. When James decided he wanted to make gelato, Nick was simply there — and when nothing else was quite working, he figured: why not?What followed was a partnership built on complementary skills and radical openness. James brought precision, balance, and an obsession with texture. Nick came in as a blank canvas, with no preconceived notions of how a food business should work. James liked that. Nick learned everything by doing, asking questions, and trusting James’ instincts — a dynamic they jokingly compare to Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.They started with almost nothing: a few tools, four or five bars, one soft-serve machine, and a strange little gelato truck that needed explaining. Instagram was still new. Video wasn’t really a thing. So Nick leaned into what he knew — treating their content like tiny TV ads, shot quickly in aprons, full of humour. “Soft serve, undressed” became a defining campaign, positioning Bar Ape as the antithesis of the overly dressed-up soft serve trend.I had the pleasure of sitting down with Nick to talk about betting on himself at a crossroads, turning down his first full-time job, and how not knowing what success looked like allowed them to keep going when others might have quit. He opens up about running a seasonal business that feels like a brand-new shop every summer, the Tetris of operating in an impossibly small space, and why a tiny, committed team beats an army.Follow the podcast on Instagram and TikTokFollow Sam Jen on Instagram