Ice cream still sells in the cold
Austintown Handels Ice Cream employee Jen McNatt gets a cone ready for a customer. Despite the deep freeze, the ice-cream shop remains open to serve loyal customers.
By TOM McPARLAND
AUSTINTOWN
The frigid weather may have slowed businesses and shuttered schools, but it didn’t stop some Mahoning Valley residents from venturing out to enjoy a frozen treat Wednesday.
The Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt store in Austintown was open for business and serving ice cream to nearly two dozen customers who braved the conditions by mid-afternoon.
“We have lots of regular customers that come, no matter what,” said Jen McNatts, a manager at the store on Mahoning Avenue for seven years.
“If they’re going to make the effort to come out in the snow, we’re going to try to be open,” she said.
Handel’s stores keep the same 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours all year, but it was forced to close during the first arctic blast that hit the area earlier this month. Even then, customers still came out, McNatts said.
During this latest cold spell, Handel’s has stayed open, serving 46 flavors of ice cream, yogurt and sherbet to anyone willing to make the trip outdoors.
McNatts said a brutal January has slowed business, but it has not halted sales.
“We’ve been slowing down a little, but it’s not stopping people from coming out,” she said.
McNatts said cakes and fresh-scooped quarts and pints were popular among most patrons, who were looking to take their sweets home.
That was the case for Jean Cohol, who stopped by about 2 p.m. to pick up a couple of quarts of her favorite ice cream. “It’s all about the grape and butter pecan,” she said.
She had found a simple way to enjoy her ice cream, despite the 17-degree weather.
“Just take it home and serve it,” she said.
But Handel’s was still selling ice cream in its more classic form Wednesday.
Lisa Kirk and her three children ordered cones and cups of chocolate raspberry truffle and chocolate peanut butter, their favorite flavors.
“It’s never too cold for ice cream,” Kirk said.
But it was too cold to eat it outside. The family enjoyed their afternoon snack in the warmth of their car.