Ohio ice cream chain expanding in Charlotte area, offering free ice cream for a year
An Ohio-based ice cream shop chain has expanded to southwest Charlotte, and is offering customers the chance for free scoops for a year.
Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream opened Sunday. It is planning a grand opening celebration at 11 a.m. Thursday at 4923 Trojan Drive in Steele Creek where the first 50 guests will receive free ice cream for a year.
Store franchise owner McKenzie Davis said she chose Steele Creek because it’s an “up-and-coming area.”
The 1,600-square-foot site has walk-up-only service and outdoor patio seating. It’s in a new retail center off Highway 160 near Interstate 485 with Jimmy John’s and Longhorn Steakhouse, which was the first business to open there in February.
Darden-owned Olive Garden expects to open May 1, according to the company’s website. And Tacos4Life expects to open this summer. Nevada-based The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill also will make its North Carolina debut.
The Steele Creek Handel’s is the second store opening this month. Franchise owners owners Matt Field and Clayton Leonard opened their second Charlotte-area store at 20545 Torrence Chapel Road in Cornelius.
The first Handel’s opened last year in Gastonia. Davis said she got hooked on Handel’s ice cream when her brother and sister-in-law, Zack and Genna Davis, opened Handel’s at 2272 E. Franklin Blvd.
What to expect at Handel’s in Steele Creek
Handel’s has 150 flavors with 48 in the store at one time, according to the company. The flavors are constantly rotating with the season and by popularity, Davis said. Flavors are announced on the store’s Facebook and Instagram sites.
The ice cream is made fresh every day.
Davis’s personal favorite is French Silk Pie, a chocolate butter fudge ice cream with graham cracker ripple and chocolate chips.
Other flavors include Buckeye, peanut butter ice cream with fudge ripple and buckeye candy pieces; Elvis, banana ice cream with fresh bananas and Reese’s Peanut Butter ripple; Grape ice cream; and Blue Monster, blue vanilla ice cream with Oreo cookies and Nestle chocolate chip cookies.
Handel’s Steele Creek location has 20 full- and part-time employees, and is still hiring. The store also offers pickup, delivery and catering. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Handel’s, based in Canfield, Ohio, has more than 90 stores in 11 states. There are four North Carolina stores, which includes the three Charlotte-area stores and Morrisville.
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A new ice cream shop is opening this week in Cornelius — and giving away free scoops
