Handel's Homemade Ice Cream, the Youngstown-born scoop shop chain that has spent eight decades expanding across the country, is finally setting its sights on Greater Cincinnati. The company has signed a six-store agreement with Royal Scoop LLC, marking the first time Handel's will operate in the region, with the first location targeted to open in late summer 2027.
The deal was confirmed in a report from local12.com, which notes that specific addresses or neighborhoods for the six Cincinnati-area shops have not yet been announced. Royal Scoop LLC, described as a group of local operators with restaurant and hotel experience, will be the company bringing the brand to the market. Handel's Erin Snyder said Cincinnati is a market that has wanted Handel's for a long time, adding that the company is developing it in a major way, per the same report.
A Gas Station Scoop Shop That Grew Into a National Brand
Handel's traces its roots back to 1945, when Alice Handel began selling homemade ice cream made with fruit from her own backyard out of her husband's gas station in Youngstown, Ohio, according to restaurantnews.com. Eight decades later, the brand still makes its ice cream fresh in each individual parlor rather than shipping it in from a central kitchen, per local12.com's report. That hands-on approach extends to variety as well — the chain offers 48 flavors every day, made by hand in small batches at each location, according to a report from smb.clemmonscourier.net.
Just how big Handel's has grown depends on which count you use. Local12.com's report on the Cincinnati deal put the chain at nearly 200 locations, while restaurantnews.com cited more than 170 locations and 150 seasonally rotating flavors, and smb.clemmonscourier.net reported more than 175 locations open across 20 states at the start of 2026. Whichever figure is closest, the company's April 2026 franchise disclosure document reported an average unit volume of $1,115,650, according to restaurantnews.com.
Royal Scoop Eager to Bring the Brand South
Royal Scoop's Raj Patel said the company is eager to introduce Handel's to Cincinnati, according to local12.com's report. Patel added that Royal Scoop is excited to bring a product customers genuinely love to the city, and said the operator looks forward to growing with Handel's for many years to come.
Part of a Broader National Push
The Cincinnati agreement is not an isolated move. It follows recent multiunit development agreements Handel's struck in the Chicago area, the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and Fort Collins, Colorado, per local12.com's reporting. In the Chicago suburbs specifically, Handel's signed its first-ever multi-unit agreement in the metropolitan area, expanding into Illinois for the first time with shops planned for Elgin, Geneva/St. Charles and Algonquin, according to restaurantnews.com. That Chicago-area agreement's first location is also slated to open in late 2027.
The company has been on a signing spree throughout 2026, inking 20 new franchise agreements across seven states this year alone, restaurantnews.com reports. Separately, smb.clemmonscourier.net reported that Handel's signed deals for 20 additional units during the first quarter of 2026 and had another 150 parlors in its development pipeline at the start of the year. That same quarter, the chain opened new locations in Vancouver, Washington; Oviedo, Florida; and Thornton, Colorado, as it entered its 81st year in business, according to the same report from smb.clemmonscourier.net.
Elsewhere, franchising.com has documented Handel's continued footprint growth, including a new scoop shop at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga and an expansion into Hillsboro, Oregon. For now, Cincinnati-area ice cream fans will have to wait for word on where exactly the six new shops will land, but the deal with Royal Scoop LLC gives the region its first confirmed timeline for a Handel's arrival.
