Handel’s expanding outside Ohio in 2015

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

HERMITAGE, PA.

This year will be another cool one for Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt.

Five new locations will open, an ice cream truck will be available for parties, and a new, top-secret, novelty item unlike any other will be on the menu, owner Lenny Fisher said.

“We take a very slow approach to growth,” Fisher said.

Since Fisher, CEO of Handel’s, took over the Youngstown staple in 1985, more than 40

locations have been added in seven states to the second original location on Handel’s Court on Youngstown’s South Side. The real original location was across the street.

One of the locations opening next year is the first one for Hermitage, Pa. The store,

located at 550 S. Hermitage Road, is set to open in March by the father-and-son team Jim and Marc Jakubovic of Poland.

“Handel’s seemed like a good idea,” Marc said. “We are hoping this turns into three [locations].”

The Jakubovics come from an envelope background. Jim started his own envelope company in 1995 in Columbiana called

Envelope 1 after working for another envelope company for 25 years. His son came to work with him. In 2013, Jim sold off his portion of the company.

“It was time to move into ice cream,” Jim said.

Both knew the quality of Handel’s ice cream and the following behind the sweet treat. Jim still remembers going to the real original location next to the Newport Theater on Midlothian Boulevard. His favorite flavor then is the same as now: chocolate pecan.

“It still tastes as great as it did when I was 12 years old,” Jim said.

Fisher has no idea why the Mahoning Valley’s favorite flavor of chocolate pecan differs from the locations outside of here, but he does know the product tastes good to customers in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia and Nevada.

“Handel’s is a phenomenon,” Fisher said. “We are busy in the winter and the summer.”

In 2013, the Redondo Beach, Calif., Handel’s grossed more than $1 million in revenue and was the highest-grossing Handel’s location in the nation.

Another location in Redondo Beach will open next year, along with stores in Las Vegas, Huntington Beach, Calif., and in Media, Pa., in addition to the Hermitage location.

“Business is better this year than last year,” Fisher said. “When things are bad, you buy an ice cream cone to feel good.”