A new ice cream and soup shop downtown will play hot and cold with student's stomachs this year.
Happy Valley Freez, which opened several weeks ago on 234 E. College Ave., offers more than 40 different flavors of ice cream and milkshakes -- and a full complement of deli sandwiches and soup. Freez owner Doug Kifolo says he's filling a unique niche.
"There's no soft ice cream downtown like we have," he said.
The shop boasts a vast variety of flavors -- including brand name candies -- that cater to any sweet tooth in State College.
"I like to see people's reactions when they see the flavors we can make, like the Skittles flavor," Freez employee Casey Stilianos (senior-psychology) said.
Kifolo, who brought the Lewisburg-based family business to State College, said the college crowd is the perfect target for the business he and his wife had always dreamed of opening. Seeing a void for a place to grab a quick, healthy and inexpensive lunch around town, they keep their prices low and their food filling, he said.
"We have student-friendly pricing," Kifolo said, adding his restaurant's prices give Cold Stone Creamery, 321 E. Beaver Ave., a run for its money. "You get twice as much ice cream for the same price."
Some even think Freez could draw patrons from the beloved Penn State Berkey Creamery, the flagship ice cream parlor of State College.
"I would definitely go, because I love ice cream," Claire Devaney (junior-nursing), said. "I do love the Creamery, but this new place being right downtown is much more convenient for me."
Freez replaced the long-standing Dee's Sandwiches, Soup & Salad, the previous occupant of the East College Avenue location. Kifolo said the day he saw Dee's was closing, he contacted the realtor and picked up the spot because of its proximity to campus and College Avenue.
However, the almost hidden entrance makes advertising and getting a good flow of customers to notice the new establishment difficult, Kifolo added.
"I didn't know there were even places down there," said Ward Rooney (senior-crime law and justice).
Kifolo said he is not worried about the impact of a struggling economy on his new restaurant -- despite a bad economy, "everyone always has to eat," he said.
He's pleased with the amount of business the eatery has received in the first few weeks. The store already has regulars, and Kifolo sees the same faces coming in for their favorite foods.
"We have a guy who comes in every morning for a milkshake and comes back every afternoon for another," he said.
