Is This The End For Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor?

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARKOWITZ COMMUNICATIONS

It survived roughly 100 years. It weathered a range of obstacles, including the St. Patrick’s Day flood of 1936 and a lengthy closing after its founder died in 1979. Two decades later his grandson reopened the shop to its original glory.

Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor, the beloved old-fashioned shop with its homemade cool treats, original revolving stools and marble countertops, is facing a sheriff’s sale on Dec. 1.

The property at 2801 Penn Ave. was purchased by Jack Hanchar and his family in 2013. But Hanchar also headed a toy robotics company, Digital Dream Labs, that ran into production troubles. The Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Dream Labs last fall after the company failed to fulfill most of the 14,000 orders for its line of in-home companion robots, according to CBS News.

A report in the Pittsburgh Business Times noted that a filing in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas showed a default notice against Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor, LLC by Dollar Bank filed last year with a remaining debt balance of more than $98,000. The sheriff’s sale posting listed the property owners as Digital Dream Labs Inc., High Knoll Development and Hanchar.

SHERIFF’S SALE POSTING ON THE SIDE DOOR OF KLAVON’S ICE CREAM PARLOR. | PHOTO BY VIRGINIA LINN

Hanchar had put the shop up for sale in March 2022. He issued a statement at the time saying that he didn’t have the time to give Klavon’s the attention it deserved.

“In the past six months, I’ve had my head down focusing on Digital Dream Labs,” Hanchar said. “The shop’s getting short changed and that’s not fair to Pittsburgh or Klavon’s.”

The annual State of the Strip District report for 2025, released by the Strip District Neighbors organization this past summer, noted that the property was currently “inactive,” with its future as an ice cream parlor “uncertain.”

James and Mary Klavon opened Klavon’s Pharmacy in 1923. Like the pharmacies of yesteryear, it had an old-fashioned ice cream counter. When James died in 1979, the shop sat empty until his grandson, Ray, reopened it in 1999 with the help of his seven siblings.

“This is very difficult for me, I am one of the grandchildren.  I am beyond sad about this!” said Martha Jane Klavon Rahuba, upon hearing the news about the sheriff’s sale. “It’s a historical landmark, my heart hurts and I’m sure my grandparents and brothers, too.”

When her brother, Ray, died in 2013, she had hoped the family could keep the shop going, but that wasn’t possible. “It still hurts me 23 years later,” said Rahuba, who lives in Hampton. “I still can’t go down Penn Avenue.

“I’m praying for a miracle,” she added. “It survived the Depression and Flood of ’36. Let’s pray it stays intact!”

Klavon’s made national news in 2021 when it more than doubled its wage for its workers during the pandemic; just after raising its hourly pay from $7.25 to $15, the shop received more than 1,000 applications in less than a week.

Hanchar said the shop had record sales in 2019, but 2020 “kicked our butts and cut our revenue in half.”

When he put the shop up for sale in 2022 he added a word of thanks to the staff and customers for their support over the years, which made Klavon’s a “Pittsburgh institution,” especially throughout the pandemic.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” he said at the time.