Here’s the scoop: Flora Park Creamery serves Penn State ice cream

Randy Stetor drives a 16-foot refrigerated truck to Penn State’s main campus in State College every two weeks and returns with 6,000 pounds of ice cream.

And not just any ice cream — he brings back three-gallon tubs of flavors from the famous Penn State Berkey Creamery.

“The cows are right there, so it’s fresh,” said Stetor, who co-owns Flora Park Creamery in Bethel Park with his wife, Debra Galob.

The shop opened in early May and Stetor, Galob and their employees have been busy scooping since the first day. Customers have been showing up sporting their Penn State blue and white school colors. One of those is Stan Buczkowski of Bethel Park, who has treated his four grandchildren to ice cream he remembers from his college days.

He knew about the shop because he is a customer at Flora Park Garden Center, located nearby, which the couple also owns. Buczkowski said his favorite ice cream flavor is the alumni swirl, which is vanilla ice cream, Swiss mocha chips and blueberry swirl.

“There is nothing else like it,” said Buczkowski. “The great thing is it brings back memories and I don’t have to drive to State College. Ice cream is the perfect addition to this park and to the community because you can be out for a walk and then get some ice cream. And it’s Pennsylvania ice cream.”

Many times, Stetor and his wife would hear customers in the garden center ask about where to eat after shopping.

Both businesses help each other get additional customers, the couple said.

They are leasing the space from Allegheny County. The Upper St. Clair residents reached out to several ice cream makers and Penn State Berkey Creamery was the first to reply. They are not Penn State graduates, but have family members and friends who are.

“It really has a following,” Stetor said. “They come in wearing all their Penn State stuff. We have alumni and students coming here from all over to get Penn State ice cream. We just weren’t ready for the demand.”

They had a few freezers they thought would be enough — they were wrong.

”So we bought more freezers, two chest freezers, and then that still wasn’t enough,” Galob said. “Now we have a huge walk-in freezer. “

They’ve sold more than 75,000 scoops of ice cream since opening.

Choices include a mini scoop, single, double, triple and a flight. Prices range from $3.75 for a mini scoop to $9.75 for a triple, served in dishes or cones. They don’t sell pints, quarts or gallons.

Sprinkles, waffle pieces, Oreo’s and chocolate chips are offered as toppings.

The couple said this is not a franchise. They offer selections from the Penn State Berkey Creamery and also carry a few other choices from companies in Wisconsin and Ohio.

The most popular flavor at Flora Park Creamery is grilled stickies — a grilled cinnamon bun that was at one time grilled and served with ice cream on the main campus at Penn State in the former Ye Olde College Diner. It has cinnamon bun-flavored ice cream with sticky bun dough pieces and a cinnamon streusel swirl.

Death by chocolate — chocolate ice cream, chocolate flakes, fudge pieces and chocolate swirl — is the second favorite. A vegan offering and pup cups for customers’ four-legged friends are also available.

They plan to keep the ice cream shop open into November and then reopen in March.

Hours are noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

The busiest time is 7 to 9 p.m., when the line is usually out the door. There are at least five employees to keep wait times short and samples are available.

Guests can eat inside or outside.

“In the summer, it’s like a big party,” Stetor said. “There will be 50 to 100 cars out here and there are kids in their pajamas and kids riding bikes and scooters. It’s like a great community. Everyone’s together. They’re all talking. I just love it. It’s almost like when they used to have drive-in movies and the parking lots were full and people were spending time together. It’s really a great feeling.”

Flora Park Creamery is located at 430 Corrigan Drive in Bethel Park.

Details: 412-595-7412 or facebook.com.