Ice-Cream Alert: Graeter's Scoop Shop to Open in Wexford

The 145-year-old Cincinnati-based ice-cream business will open its first Pennsylvania scoop-shop in July.

Photos courtesy of Graeter's

Ice-cream seekers in Pittsburgh’s city core now have their share of outstanding, small-batch options to choose from: Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream, Leona’s Ice Cream Sandwiches and Family Farms Creameries all regularly scoop within the city limits. Things are more challenging for suburban Pittsburghers seeking a summer treat, but that’s about to get a bit better — in the North Hills at least.

Graeter’s Ice Cream, a 145-year-old chain based in Cincinnati, will open its first Pennsylvania scoop shop in Wexford in early July. “We’ve been in the Pittsburgh market in grocery stores (the company’s products are sold at local Giant Eagle, Whole Foods and Target stores) and the Pittsburgh community in-general has been a good customer of ours, so we figured it was time to open a shop here,” says Chip Graeter, one of the fourth-generation family owners.

Graeter’s is a large operation — they have over 50 scoop shops and a booming wholesale business —  but the company still makes all of their ice cream using an old-fashioned, French-pot freezing process in 2-gallon batches. Each batch is then hand-packed into containers. “We do that all day … and all night … long,” says Graeter.
 

Graeter’s signature flavor is Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, which is a satisfying blend of vanilla ice-cream, Oregon-grown black raspberries and Graeter’s own chocolate-chips. The Wexford scoop-shop will have approximate 30 flavors of ice-cream for sale, as well as milk shakes, ice-cream floats and candies.

“We’ll start with one here, see how that goes and then go on from there, hopefully,” Graeter says regarding the possibility of more scoop-shops in the region.