The first Bay Area location of Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream, a nearly 80-year-old national ice cream brand, has just opened in Walnut Creek.
Handel’s began as a neighborhood scoop shop started by Alice Handel in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1945. It now operates franchise locations in 14 states, including a number in southern California and the Sacramento area.
Known for its fresh-daily ice cream batches, the ice cream parlor serves up its spectrum of flavors in cones, dishes, pints, quarts, sundaes and shakes — plus hurricanes (vanilla ice cream blended with candy or dessert mix-ins) and Handel pops (ice cream dipped in chocolate and served on a stick).
The Walnut Creek location, which opened April 25, currently has 45 flavors on offer, including options like chocolate cake batter, caramel pretzel crunch, vanilla raspberry chip, graham central station, horchata and buckeye, as well as vegan options and sherbet varieties like pink champagne.
Details: Open daily at 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at 1273 Locust St. in Walnut Creek; handelsicecream.com/store/walnut-creek.