Local Eats: Handel's Ice Cream in Ohio

Handel's Ice Cream has been rated as one of the best ice cream places in the country. More importantly to me, my friend Wendy has recommended them a few times. They are mostly concentrated in Ohio, and since I pass through Youngstown on my DC to Chicago drives, I finally managed to stop.

IB13, my travel companion, joined me. He got the mouthful chocolate chocolate chip cheesecake chunk and I could not resist a hot fudge sundae.

The chocolate ice cream base of IB13's choice was great. I generally don't like chocolate ice cream because the chocolate is too strong, but this was nice. It was definitely chocolate, but the other flavors and the creaminess of the ice cream were right there.

My sundae was also excellent. They use a mix of salted, roasted nuts which were particularly nice, even for me, a not-huge-fan of the sweet-and-salty combo.

The ice cream itself was almost a gelato texture, softer and creamier than what you'd normally get scooped out.

It doesn't top my absolute favorite ice cream experience, the hot fudge sundaes from Ghirardelli, but it was great and is well worth a stop if you are near a location.