From Youngstown gas station to ice cream empire: Handel’s history behind its success

BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) - It was a woman in Youngstown who created the beloved recipes that Handel's Ice Cream is known for, but it was Lenny Fisher who saw the potential behind the small business -- growing it from a small ice cream parlor to nearly 200 locations across 20 states.

WKBN spoke to Fisher from the business's Creekside location about his experiences with founder Alice Handel and why he thought more people should be eating her ice cream.

"There's a magazine called 'Quick Frozen Foods International.' Why I was getting it, I have no clue, but I was. And it was 1984, and the only premium ice cream in the supermarket was Haagen-Dazs, and there was only one freezer full of ice cream. Now, it's a whole aisle, right? So I said, 'You know, someone should be taking that Handel's Ice Cream and putting it in the supermarket, and that someone should be me," Fisher recalled.

Fisher went to Handel with a marketing plan for her business, and they eventually agreed on a deal. The ice cream was not sold in supermarkets, as each batch is made by hand on premise -- honoring Handel's original methods, according to the company's website.

Alice Handel started making the ice cream in her husband's gas station in 1945. Her ice cream had quite a few fans in the local area -- often leading to long lines at the original shop near the intersection of Market Street and Midlothian Boulevard on Youngstown's South Side.

"I liked ice cream, and just, my husband had a station and a lot of room, and I thought, well, I had been working, and I wanted to start something," she told WKBN at Handel's 40th anniversary in 1985.

Fisher remembers fondly working alongside Handel to learn her recipes.

"She would work from 9 o'clock in the morning til 10 o'clock at night, seven days a week, when she was 75. She could outwork anybody," he said.

Fisher said Handel would only use the best ingredients in her ice cream -- the story goes that she used fresh strawberries from her garden to make the strawberry ice cream.

"She was very careful. Like, if she's making bananas, she makes sure there were no strings on the banana, sliced everything up, peaches, fresh peaches. So she loved what she was doing. She just loved it," he said.

Fisher has tried to replicate that with his business model and says the commitment to the original methods and ingredients has resonated with customers who notice the consistent flavor.

"I was waiting on a window one time, and a guy ordered strawberry ice cream. And the guy next to him says, 'Are there strawberries in your ice cream?' The customer said, 'This is Handel's! Of course there are strawberries in the ice cream!'" Fisher recalled.

Fisher said one of the original flavors that Handel created was chocolate pecan, which is still popular today, though her favorite was vanilla.

As far as how the business selects new flavors, Fisher said those often come from the franchisee owners who see a desire for a particular flavor, but he also takes suggestions from those in his life. He said his favorite flavor -- chocoholic chunk -- came from a friend of his son.

"That guy's now a VP with Comedy Central. I'm not going to say his name because I'm not going to give him a plug," Fisher said, laughing.

WKBN spoke with Fisher, as well as Jody Nerone, vice president of product innovation, about the explosive growth of the business, as well as new developments, as part of "History Happened Here," which airs on WKBN's TV streaming app, WKBN+. (For directions on how to download the free streaming app for your TV, click here).

Fisher said the company has been adding franchise locations across the United States and expects to add stores in two new states soon, saying he believes they can keep the interest going for another 100 years.

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