A taste of Happy Valley
Penn State alums sell its famous ice cream in Elizabeth Twp.
A new shop in Elizabeth Township sells the hard-to-find Penn State ice cream.
Berkey Creamery on Penn State’s main campus in State College is famous, particularly among the university’s alumni, for its homemade ice cream. With the ice cream’s availability dwindling in the Pittsburgh area, it was a good time for two Penn State alumni to open a store that carries flavors such as Peachy Paterno.
Steve and Alexia Krum (rhymes with “broom”) opened Krum’s Creamery in March. The shop is in Swiss Alpine Village in Elizabeth Township, next door to Fox’s Pizza Den, which is owned by Mrs. Krum’s father, who apparently passed the entrepreneurial gene to his daughter.
“I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit,” she said. She and her husband graduated from Penn State in 2011, and Mrs. Krum believes their status as alumni helped to grease the skids so they could become ice cream sellers. The couple married last September and moved back to Mrs. Krum’s hometown of Elizabeth, but starting the shop “seemed like a unique little way to bring back part of Happy Valley with us,” she said.
The Krums carry 14 regular Penn State flavors as well as two new seasonal ones each week. Mrs. Krum makes the long drive to State College every Friday to pick up the
weekly supply.
They also sell soft-serve ice cream as well as shakes, sundaes, ice cream sandwiches and other products using both Penn State and soft-serve flavors.
They also sell catering cups that can be bought in bulk for events.
The most popular flavors so far, she said, are Death By Chocolate (chocolate ice cream with chocolate flakes, fudge pieces and chocolate swirl), butter pecan, chocolate chip cookie dough and Peachy Paterno.
At the shop’s grand opening on March 19, alumni flocked in for some ice cream, and they kept asking Mrs. Krum if she could also bring in sticky buns from Ye Olde College Diner, another State College favorite. One Saturday, she did — and she sold out in three hours. So the shop is now planning to stock sticky buns on the first Saturday of every month.
The shop offers a combo deal with Fox’s Pizza: $19.99 for a large single-topping pizza and a quart of Penn State ice cream.
“It’s been amazing,” Mrs. Krum said of the shop’s first few months in business. “A lot of alumni have come out to support us, and the same with the Elizabeth community and the surrounding townships.”
Berkey Creamery is part of Penn State’s food science program, and its mission has always focused mainly on serving the campus community and on educating ice cream professionals. Ice cream sellers nationwide (including personnel from Baskin-Robbins and Haagen-Dazs) have taken Penn State’s Ice Cream Short Course.
The ice cream has never been mass-marketed to grocery stores, and Penn State’s Creamery doesn’t make it easy for sellers to carry the ice cream off-campus. In fact, two establishments in the Pittsburgh area — Klavon’s in the Strip District and Witch Flavor? in Beaver — used to sell Penn State ice cream but no longer do. (Klavon’s follows the Penn State recipe to make its ice cream after owner Jacob Hanchar took a course at the university.)
Krum’s Creamery is at 200 Swiss Way, Elizabeth Township, and is open daily from 3 to 9:30 p.m. For information, go to facebook.com/ Krums Creamery.