Handel’s ice cream is off to a roaring start at its first Midlands shop. Take a look inside

The lines at night and on the weekend have already been a sight to see in Forest Acres.

Customers have queued up to get hulking, multiple-scoop ice cream confections, with traditional flavors like chocolate and strawberry, and some creative offerings such as blueberry cheesecake chunk and pineapple upside down cake.

Indeed, just as summer is about to arrive and the temperatures in the Midlands begin to heat up, one of the most well-known national ice cream brands has made its debut in Forest Acres.

Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream opened May 9 at 4619 Forest Drive in the Cardinal Crossing Development. Franchisees Kandi Bubonic and Cody Sheriff opened the new ice cream shop, which is the first Handel’s location in the Columbia area. The company started in 1945 in Youngstown, Ohio, where founder Alice Handel used fruit grown from the garden in her backyard to add to her own ice cream recipes. The company now has franchise locations in Alabama, Arizona, California, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

The business partnership between Bubonic and Sheriff was forged several years ago not in the chilly realm of ice cream, but in the bakery world. Bubonic owns several Nothing Bundt Cake locations, including in Forest Acres (that shop is just a few doors down from Handel’s), on Harbison Boulevard in Columbia, and in Greenville. She also has owned a Nothing Bundt Cakes in the Arlington, Texas, area for a number of years, and Sheriff was the general manager for that shop.

Sheriff said he was ready to take the next step into starting his own business, and Handel’s caught their eye.

“I was looking to start a business, and (Bubonic) wanted to help me get to my next step in life,” Sheriff told The State. “So, we started looking at franchises. There are a few (Handel’s) out in the Dallas area. She came out on a visit, and we went four or five days in a row and had ice cream. And we were like, ‘We need to look at this.’”

Sheriff’s family also had a keen interest in franchising with Handel’s. His brother has opened a location of the ice cream shop in Southlake, Texas, and his father and stepmother have a location near Dallas. Sheriff moved to South Carolina about a year ago, and worked at Savage Craft Ale Works while he and Bubonic were working out the deal to open Handel’s in Forest Acres.

Bubonic said she remembered Handel’s fondly from her younger years.

“I had (Handel’s ice cream) years ago, when my sister lived in Indianapolis,” Bubonic said. “She and I would go and get their peanut butter parfait ice cream, and it was something we just loved.”

Part of what drew the Bubonic and Sheriff to the Handel’s concept was the process. All of the ice cream at the Forest Acres shop is made fresh, in-house. Employees were working hard at mixing ingredients and creating the various flavors when reporters from The State recently stopped by.

Handel’s works directly with several dairies, Sheriff said, and has its own patented pasteurization formula.

“That special Handel’s milk goes into every batch that we have, and that’s just the base that gets it started off,” Sheriff noted.

There are about 27 employees currently working at Handel’s, including five who have been trained on how to create the various flavors of ice cream. Sheriff said someone is usually in by 7 or 8 a.m. to start making the ice cream, and production goes on throughout the day.

That process is part of what makes the shop special, Bubonic said.

“Everything is hand-blended,” Bubonic said. “So, when we’re making a batch of ice cream, we’re adding the vanilla, we’re adding the flavors, we’re adding the mix-ins. That’s what sets us apart. Nothing is going to be shipped in to us, where we are just pulling a bucket straight off a truck and scooping it. It’s made right here.”

Handel’s has more than 160 ice cream flavors that rotate in and out. There are 48 flavors available at the Forest Acres location at any given time. There are four long freezers in the main kitchen, each containing 12 flavors for employees to scoop from.

The Cardinal Crossing shop has five walk-up windows where customers can order, with picnic tables and benches for outdoor seating. There’s a certain old school flair to the idea of ice cream window service.

“Yes, it is a nostalgic ice cream parlor,” Bubonic noted. “Most (Handel’s locations) have walk-up windows. That is the traditional Handel’s footprint. ... They have that walk-up window, and they kind of have that hometown feel that I absolutely love.”

The franchisees said the initial support they’ve received from the Forest Acres community — and beyond — has been overwhelming. Some of the customers have traveled from other parts of South Carolina, noting they are originally from different areas of the country where Handel’s has long been popular, and have been missing the frosty treats.

“We’ve had people driving more than an hour,” Sheriff said. “We’ve had people who are originally from Ohio or up north and have had Handel’s in the past. We had one guy who went to the original Handel’s store, four years after it opened, and he came here. He said, ‘Thank you for bringing chocolate pecan here. I haven’t had it in years because it was too far away.’”

Forest Acres has had a dearth of ice cream parlors recently, particularly after a Baskin-Robbins closed there in 2023. Customers at Handel’s have quickly lined up to show that creamy treats are still in demand in the city just east of Columbia.

“We knew when Baskin-Robbins closed that there was a niche that needed to be filled,” Bubonic said. “But we had no idea it was going to be the outpouring of support that there’s been. It has been over the top.”