After a nice Sunday afternoon late lunch at P.F. Chang’s in Victoria Gardens and driving down to Ontario Mills to see if Virgin Megastore was still in business (they were, but only selling store fixtures and such), we decided to go to Handel’s Ice Cream in Upland.
For the uninitiated, Handel’s Ice Cream is an Ohio-based chain with other locations in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia and…Upland. The Upland store(373 S. Mountain Ave., at Seventh Street)was opened under a franchise agreement by an Ohio native who grew up enjoying Handel’s ice cream and wanted to own his own Handel’s. He ended up in Southern California and made his dream come true. Thank you!
Accolades: The National Geographic publication “The 10 Best of Everything: The Ultimate Guide for Travelers,” named Handel’s one of the 10 best ice creams in the world.Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, has included Handel’s in his list of top 10 U.S. ice cream stores.
Handel’s makes over 70 flavors fresh daily at their Upland store, including such specialties as Spouse Like A House (malted vanilla with chocolate-covered, peanut butter-filled pretzel pieces), Tin Lizzy (chocolate and butterscotch), Blue Moon (blue raspberry), Elvis (banana with peanut butter) and Raspberry Jalapeo Surprise (I think the jalapeo is the surprise).
They also have sherbets, ices, frozen yogurts and fat-free/no sugar added ice cream.
They serve ice cream in cups, cones, sundaes, quarts, pints, Hurricane’s (think McFlurry/Blizzard/etc.), Handel Pops (chocolate-dipped scoops on a stick), cakes, pies, shakes, smoothies, floats, freezes and Boston Coolers (whatever that is). Whew!
The service at the walk-up window is fast and friendly and they’re not scoop-skimpers. Theytake cash, MasterCard and Visa.
This particular visit I had a double-dip cup of egg nog (hands-down the best egg nog ice cream I’ve ever had) and cinnamon sticky bun ice creams. I also got a taste of their raspberry and orange sherbets (both very good) and their fat-free/no sugar added strawberry (which tasted yogurt-y, but was excellent).
A warning: Once you go to Handel’s, you will immediately want to goback to Handel’s.
Oh, and now that I’ve given you that warning, I can mention the big red sign they’ve got posted in their window: Wednesday $1 cones. Not that I need any encouragement.
Enjoy!