2025 Surf City USA® Foodie Awards Best Treat Winner: Handel's Homemade Ice Cream
On a warm, sunny day (and in Huntington Beach, there are many!), nothing hits like a scoop of frozen, creamy deliciousness piled high on a cone. Paired with a stroll along the pier, it’s hard to find a more ideal beach treat. And whether you’re craving a decadent Blueberry Cobbler swirled with perfectly ripe fruit or Birthday Cake studded with sprinkles and flecks of sky blue, there’s only one counter scooping the most creative flavors in Huntington Beach. Voted the Best Treat in the 2025 Surf City USA® Foodie Awards, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream is known for its small-batch flavors and homemade taste. Best of all, it’s located a stone’s throw from the ocean, making it the perfect way to cap off a day at the beach.
An Award-Winning History
Surf City USA® isn’t the first to recognize Handel’s as a top-tier treat. In its “10 Best of Everything” guide, National Geographic named it No. 1 on a list of best ice creams worldwide. Handel’s beat out big names like Haagen-Dazs along with specialty spots in far-flung locales like Cuba, Italy, and France. Its praises have been sung by media outlets ranging from the Travel Channel to USA Today, and in 2022 we were lucky to land a new location at the corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.
But before making its way to Huntington Beach, Handel’s got its start in Youngstown, Ohio, back in 1945. Founded by Alice Handel as a single-location stand, it featured fresh fruit from her backyard garden and personal recipes that became neighborhood favorites. As the business changed hands and expanded across the country to 18 states, her commitment to quality never wavered. Today, there’s more than 150 locations and each continues to make its ice cream fresh in-store every day.
How to Order
Like all good, old-fashioned ice cream shops, Handel’s has a variety of ways to enjoy your creamy frozen treat. If you want a simple scoop, it’s easy: Pick your cone or dish, choose a size and flavor, then enjoy. There are plain waffle, sugar, and cake cones, along with dipped varieties that come adorned with your choice of nuts, Oreo cookie crumbs, or sprinkles. Families (or the indecisive) may opt for the four-scoop sampler, packed easily into a plastic container for sharing.
But for the more adventurous, options abound. You can’t go wrong with a hot fudge brownie sundae or banana split topped with a mountain of whipped cream, crushed pineapples, strawberries, and nuts. Or try a handheld like an ice cream sandwich made with oversized Oreos or Handel pops, a bite-sized treat served on a stick that encases vanilla, chocolate, or mint chip ice cream with a rich, crunchy chocolate shell. Hurricanes are also a favorite here, especially for an on-the-go indulgence. It starts with a base of vanilla ice cream that’s blended with your favorite mix-ins like M&Ms, strawberry cheesecake chunks, Oreos, and Reese’s pieces. The result is a decadent treat that’s thicker than a milkshake or even a malt, and is overflowing with flavor.
Favorite Flavors
Ice creams, sherbets, and sorbets abound in Huntington Beach. In the Handel’s tradition, the Pacific Coast Highway shop has 48 flavors available every day, all made fresh in-store. (Fun fact: Handel’s has more than 140 combinations in rotation that local stores can pull from.)
Since flavors rotate each month, it’s easy to sample something new on every visit. Mainstays like peanut butter and jelly or chocolate peanut butter brownie are hard to resist, as is the popular Graham Central Station, which starts with a graham cracker ice cream with another ripple of graham cracker crumbs and chocolate-covered pieces for additional crunch. If chocolate’s not your thing, try the sweet strawberry cheesecake for a lighter treat.
There are also seasonal flavors that have become favorites over the years. Peppermint stick in the winter is a must, while in February you might find appropriately-colored pink delights like cherry cordial or cherry magnolia. Fall is all about pumpkin—and who needs a PSL with choices ranging from pumpkin pecan to pumpkin ripple featuring marshmallow swirl. New flavors also pop up all the time, such as a creamy vanilla ice cream mixed with red raspberry sherbet that’s dubbed the Raspberry Dream Cream. For the best bet, try the flavor of the month on every visit to ensure you’re getting the latest and greatest of Handel’s offerings.
