Palmdale is about to have two places to get its Handel's fix. The City of Palmdale announced that a second Handel's Homemade Ice Cream location is coming to the east side of town, this time at 38003 47th St. East, Suite F, promising more than 100 homemade flavors made fresh daily and adding 30 jobs to the local economy.
The announcement came via a post from the City of Palmdale - Government on Facebook, which said the new shop will open soon in East Palmdale. It marks the brand's second Antelope Valley outpost, following the original Palmdale location that opened on September 7, 2023, at 39626 10th Street West in the Sierra Commons Shopping Center on the city's west side, according to a post from Handel's Palmdale on Facebook.
The new East Palmdale storefront sits between an AT&T store and a Wells Fargo branch, with construction that began in June targeting a mid-September opening, per a post shared in a local Antelope Valley Facebook group and AV-Today.com. The address places the shop inside a sprawling 303,500-square-foot commercial plaza anchored by Super Target and Home Depot, according to listings from Realmo, putting the new scoop shop in one of East Palmdale's busiest retail corridors.
Outdoor Seating Already Approved
Before the doors even open, Handel's has already cleared a local hurdle: the East Palmdale location secured municipal approval from the City of Palmdale for outdoor customer seating after completing its permitting process in May, according to the same Antelope Valley Facebook group post. That means once the shop opens, customers should have a patio option to enjoy their cones outside rather than just grabbing a scoop and going.
A National Chain on a Growth Streak
The Palmdale expansion is part of a much bigger picture for Handel's. As of April 2026, the chain operated more than 175 locations across 20 states, with another 150 parlors in its development pipeline nationally, according to RestaurantNews.com. The brand's financial numbers help explain why franchisees keep signing on: Handel's reported an Average Unit Volume of $1,061,425 per store in 2024, a figure that earned it top honors on Franchise Times' Zor Awards for franchisee operator profitability, as reported by Business Journal Daily.
Handel's roots go back to 1945 in Youngstown, Ohio, where founder Alice Handel began serving ice cream made with fresh fruit from her backyard at her husband's gas station, according to Metro Monthly. Current owner and board chairman Leonard Fisher acquired the company in 1985 and trained under Alice Handel for two years before growing the single Ohio shop into today's national franchise network, the outlet reports. The brand's reputation has followed it west and beyond: National Geographic named Handel's Homemade Ice Cream the number one ice cream in the world in its 10 Best of Everything publication, per Wikipedia.
What's Popular With California Customers
For Southern California customers wondering what to order first, Handel's corporate leadership told Metro Monthly in July 2025 that Graham Central Station and Banana Cream Pie rank among the most popular flavors at its California locations. Whether those favorites make the cut at the new East Palmdale counter remains to be seen once the shop opens its doors.
The East Palmdale opening also fits into a broader wave of Handel's expansions Hoodline has tracked across the country this year, including new shops that opened in Hurst, Texas and drew crowds at a Carmel Mountain Ranch debut in San Diego. For now, Palmdale residents on the east side just have to wait for the scoop counters to open and the first fresh batches to come out.
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