Handel’s, and its 'analog' experience, is surging

Cristina Ferguson was admittedly nervous on the eve of the opening of the Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream shop in Reno, Nevada, that she runs along with her sister-in-law, Susie Nava, and their respective husbands.

“I was like, ‘What if nobody comes?’” Ferguson said.

If anything, she should have been worried about the opposite. The first customer showed up at 2:30 a.m., in a bid to be one of the 100 people who received free ice cream for a year. But the shop served hour-long lines for days and remains one of the system’s busiest. It blew past projections and set records for the franchise.

Rapid expansion

“Bill, our franchise business consultant, was like, ‘Has nobody in Reno had ice cream?’” We were running out of cones. We were running out of everything. So Reno showed up.”

A lot of people are showing up at Handel’s these days. The 173-unit brand has been among the fastest-growing frozen dessert chains of the past decade, with high-volume shops that serve customers the old-fashioned way: by scooping up ice cream into cones and dishes right in front of them.

“It’s a nostalgic event to go get ice cream with your family,” said Hillary Frei, Handel’s CMO. “People love it as much today, and I think especially today, when everything is moving so fast, everything is so digital.

“We really pride ourselves in a very analog experience where you are standing in a line. We don’t have an app. There will never be a screen between our person at the window and the customer.”

Handel’s is one of the country’s oldest growth chains. Alice Handel founded the chain in 1945, making ice cream using fruit she grew in the yard of her Youngstown, Ohio home. She ran that one shop for 40 years, when the street was renamed Handel’s court in her honor.

Lenny Fisher bought the brand shortly thereafter and in 2019 the chain received an investment from Clearlight Partners, though Fisher continues to hold an ownership stake. Jennifer Schuler, the former chief executive with Wetzel’s Pretzels, was named CEO of the ice cream chain in 2024.

Sales and unit growth

The chain has grown faster than almost any other frozen dessert chain over the past decade. System sales have grown more than 621% over that period. That growth has come from both new locations and stronger average-unit volumes, which are now more than $1.1 million, 46% higher than average for ice cream chains, according to data from Restaurant Business sibling company Technomic.

Handel’s has had 15 straight years of same-store sales growth. “It’s been a pretty healthy business for a very long time,” Frei said. “I think it’s just accelerating. I think a lot of things have come together well over the past few years.”

The chain still makes its ice cream on site, using many of the same techniques that Alice Handel used in the 1940s.

The company once found one of her recipes, for a pistachio ice cream, featuring the line, “Don’t be stingy.”

“These are little manufacturing plants,” Schuler said last year during an episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive. “We’re fresh. Like a really fresh product.”

Franchisees of the brand must learn how to make ice cream from scratch, Schuler said, though as they grow into multi-unit operators many will appoint ice cream makers. Many of them were trained as pastry chefs.

The brand’s flavors are classic, reflecting the brand’s heritage. “We’re not going to do olive oil ice cream,” Frei said. “We are giving you traditional, classic flavors. We are doing Butter Pecan. And we’re doing Mint Chocolate Chip. And even our new flavors are things you could have back in that time. So we’re doing a Cheesecake with Biscoff cookies. Biscoff cookies came out in the 1930s. Biscoff is very on trend right now, but it also has this heritage.”

Handel’s marked its 80th anniversary last year. The company celebrated by giving free ice cream to 80-year-olds and created a campaign featuring models 80 years or older. Customers were coming in from nursing homes, some with the help of walkers, some of whom knew Alice Handel personally.

It’s an idea Frei had while at the opening of a store in Atlanta, when an 80-year-old woman came in, saying she was from Youngstown. The woman lived an hour away but would routinely come to town while the location was under construction to check on its progress.

She said her favorite flavor was Chocolate Pecan. “So, we went and got her some chocolate pecan and we gave it to her,” Frei recalled. “And she closed her eyes, and a tear came down.

“That was the taste of her childhood, and it was here in the city that she had relocated to.”

Yet, while the brand may be based in Youngstown, its expansion has earned it legions of fans in far-flung states, who line up for ice cream even when they have no such childhood connection to the brand.

Just ask Cristina Ferguson and Susie Nava.

Nava and her husband were in Dallas, and they would recommend a visit to Handel’s, where Cristina became enamored with the chain’s Banana Cream Pie flavor. They loved the fact that the flavor truly mimicked the taste of the cream pie. “It’s the top ice cream,” Ferguson said. “If you have it, you’re addicted.”

The Fergusons were considering what to do about retirement, and potential income in retirement. They considered real estate but ultimately settled on a Handel’s franchise, which they opened in Reno.

The Navas were initially going to be silent partners until Susie listened to one of the company’s system calls and was impressed and decided to join her sister-in-law in operating the brand.

They expected to perhaps break even in the first year. Instead, they made money and broke franchise records for sales. Demand is so strong that they had to gut their office so they could store a freezer there. They are now planning to build more locations in Reno.

“We’re really enjoying it,” Susie Nava said. “We’ve developed a passion. Now it’s just our life. And we plan to work here until, I don’t know, we die.”

“No,” Ferguson interjected. “I want to retire. But, you know, after we scale and build a team.”