Klavon’s, Eat’n Park create partnership
Smiley Cookie ice cream sandwiches available now
Add Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward to the list of Pittsburgh sports stars lending their name to local food businesses for a good cause.
Last week, Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor in the Strip District trotted out its limited-edition mini Smiley cookie ice cream sandwiches that pair the shop’s homemade ice cream with — you guessed it — two mini Eat’n Park Smiley cookies. Klavon’s also is offering the 2018 Cam Heyward Smiley Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches for a limited time.
It’s two Pittsburgh classics coming together for one great cause: Eat’n Park’s 40th annual Caring for Kids Campaign, a five-week fundraising campaign that benefits children’s hospitals in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
The football player follows a long line of local celebs to have their faces recreated with icing into a Smiley cookie. Past cookie “smilers” include Pittsburgh Dad, Brett Keisel, Rick Sebak and Mikey & Bob from The Morning Freak Show on 96.1 KISS FM. But this is the first time one of the treats has been paired with a scoop of ice cream.
Jacob Hanchar purchased the legendary ice cream fountain and soda shop five years ago and has been experimenting with new flavors and ingredients ever since. A top-notch ice cream cookie sandwich was always on his mind, but he felt he first had to perfect his ice cream. It wasn’t until after he took the famous Penn State ice cream course in 2015 that he felt he was ready.
“I had to learn from the ground up,” he says.
As for the cookie part of the equation, he’s always had a soft spot for Eat’n Park. Some of his best memories from his childhood in Ebensburg were the trips his family made to Altoona to eat at the restaurant. He never left without a Smiley cookie.
So about a year ago, when he was ready to try his hand at ice cream sandwiches, he reached out to Mark Broadhurst, whose family owns the Homestead-based restaurant and food service business. He told him: “I have this idea.”
Mr. Broadhurst agreed it was a good one, and put the ice cream maker in touch with Becky McArdle, communications director for Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, which has sponsored a lot of events at Children’s Hospital. She immediately thought of the Caring for Kids Campaign, which has raised more than $10.7 million for sick children since its start in 1979.
“How could we say no?,” she asks with a laugh, adding, “Ice cream and cookies go really great together.”
Especially since both components are iconic Pittsburgh foods: Eat’n Park has been baking the hand-iced Smiley cookies since 1986 while Klavon’s dates to 1923.
The mini ice cream sandwiches are $4 and come in five flavors with coordinating icing smile flourishes: mint chocolate chip (green), strawberry (red), peach (orange), vanilla/chocolate chip cookie dough (yellow) and blue monster (blue). If those don’t appeal, customers also can create their own cookie from any of Klavon’s 13 regular and seasonal flavors, which include candy caramel apple, salted caramel pretzel and pumpkin.
The larger Cam Heyward sandwich is $6, and features a helmet-shaped cookie decorated with his No. 97 in icing and eye black under the yellow dot eyes. It’s filled with banana cream pie ice cream and studded with chocolate chips.
The limited-edition treats are only available at Klavon’s until Dec. 8. Profits benefit the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation.