Handel's Homemade Ice Cream — Restaurant in Los Angeles

4 Scoop Sampler / buckeye, black cherry, cotton candy, banana cream pie - 5⭐! Single Scoop Sugar Cone / monkey business - 5⭐! Single Scoop Cup / buckeye again - 5⭐!

Handel's Homemade Ice Cream is officially open in Los Feliz and to celebrate, they had a fun and very generous grand opening day prize. If you were one of the 1st 100 people in line on 6/20, they gave you a gift card for a free small ice cream for an entire year!

I live close by and already knew I love Handel's, so I figured why not! I went there at 9 am and was the 83rd person in line. The gift card is good for one small ice cream a week for the next 52 weeks! Coincidentally they have approximately 50 flavors to choose from. I am going to see if I can try out each one. Buckeye is already an early favorite for me.

Handel's has been in business since 1945. They are originally from Ohio and currently are in 13 states. I have been to other locations in California but this new place is a short walk for me. Their new store is bright and colorful. They have a lovely outdoor patio for seating. Menus, flavors, and pictures are everwhere. They offer tastings.

The ice cream is excellent. High quality with fresh, natural ingredients. They have so many great options to choose from. In fact, there are so many options, it may be hard to pick. But that's not a bad thing (at least for me).

One aspect I really like about their menu is they have a wide assortment of options to choose from, including shakes, hurricanes (their take on blizzards), and sandwiches. There are lots of cone options. They even have a 4-scoop sampler which I tried the first time I went. Their prices are quite reasonable and their serving sizes are generous!

Their location in Hollywood/Los Feliz is easy to park next to but they also have parking in the building their store is in. They are across the street from The Vista theater and is a perfect spot for a before/after movie treat. The staff is super friendly and helpful.

If you are in the area and haven't tried Handel's before, give them a shot!...

I love their ice cream, but majority of their employees are special needs individuals. This last trip I asked for two flavors in a quart container packed side-by-side. I don’t understand how the business hasn’t taught them to pack the ice cream this way so that we can actually enjoy both flavors. What they usually do is apparently pack two flavors on top of each other so you have to finish one flavor to get to the bottom for the other flavor. This tall tattooed girl indicated she hadn’t packed it side by side before and I asked her to do it because the other employees had done so and it was perfect. Well, she attempted and I got like maybe less than a quarter of the container packed in one flavor and the rest was the other. I mean, at least possess some common sense to look at it and say, does that look like...

We drove 39 minutes to come to Handel’s for ice cream, only to be turned away in a very disappointing way. We arrived before closing time and were standing in line, when an employee came out and told us that the person right in front of us would be the last customer they served. That meant, despite the fact that we were already there and waiting, we were refused service. If a business has posted hours, customers reasonably expect to be served up until closing — not cut off early while still in line. We weren’t late; we made the effort to arrive on time. After such a long drive, being dismissed like that felt very frustrating and unfair. We hope management takes this feedback seriously and addresses how the end-of-night lines are handled. Customers who arrive before closing should never be...