A scoop and a swing
Fore Scoops revives ice cream and mini-golf facility
A former hot spot for sinking putts and downing milkshakes has been revived in Lehigh Township.
Fore Scoops, an ice cream shop and miniature golf course, on Aug. 14 opened for food and drink service at 4315 W. Mountain View Drive, according to owner Jesse Probus, who purchased the more than 8-acre property last year.
The mostly treeshaded course, featuring an automobile theme with old cars, tires and traffic signs, is expected to open within the next few weeks.
“We’re looking to create a fun destination where you can gather with friends and family or just cruise to on the weekends,” said Probus, who’s operating the business with his wife, Jessica. “We want it to be a place where you can put your cellphone down and start to enjoy life again, which we all seem to have gotten away from lately.”
The property, just west of Edgemont Park Roller Rink, for decades was home to Edgemont Acres Drive-In and Miniature Golf Course. In recent years, Casey’s Cafe & Mini Golf operated there.
The Probuses, of Walnutport, handled the bulk of the renovations, installing new flooring, LED lighting, stainless-steel kitchen equipment and more. They also landscaped the course and plan to add new putting greens in the coming weeks.
“The eatery can accommodate 38 customers, but with COVID right now, we’re only allowed to operate at 25% capacity,” said Probus, who also operates Whitehall Township’s Sick Ink Studios tattoo and piercing shop. “Fortunately, we also have some outdoor picnic tables.”
Guests can choose from about 30 hard ice cream flavors, including cotton candy, teaberry and flavors of the month Almond Joy and Tandy
Cake, along with four softserve varieties: chocolate, vanilla, twist and flavor-of-themonth peach.
Auto-themed sundaes, $4-5, include Corvette Cookie, Mustang Mint, Peanut Butter Plymouth and Salted Caramel Pretzel Pontiac, with more than 25 toppings, including blueberries, brownie crumbles and chopped walnuts, available to customize any chilled treat.
Other menu highlights include banana splits, milkshakes, floats and hot items such as loaded fries, mozzarella sticks and build-your-own burgers, crispy chicken sandwiches or Nathan’s beef hot dogs with your choice of more than 20 toppings, including chili, fried onions and bacon crumbles.
Fore Scoops, which also offers penny candy, is open 3-10 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. The Probuses may operate the eatery year-round depending on demand. Info: 610-760-3234; facebook.com/ ForeScoops. housemade chips with bacon and Yuengling beer cheese sauce and fried chicken thigh sandwiches with bacon jam, mayonnaise and dill pickles.
Other menu highlights include salads, wraps, fresh-cut fries, traditional and boneless chicken wings and soft-shell tacos and quesadillas, featuring your choice of protein, including blackened mahi, chicken and pork. Nothing on the menu is more than $12.
To comply with a new
COVID-19 restriction, mandating that alcohol can only be served for on-premises consumption when in the same transaction as a meal, Stooges also is offering $1 cheese sandwiches, Clark said.
Renovations at the longtime watering hole include new flooring, lighting, kitchen equipment and facade improvements such as new paint, windows and a garage door that opens to the front sidewalk. Walls that previously separated two large rooms have been knocked down, allowing for an open-concept dining area and a second bar.
Both full bars feature quartz tops, 16 draft beers and signature cocktails like the West End Mule. Info: 610-217-4571; allentownstooges.com.
One final foodie tidbit: HiPot, specializing in Taiwanese hot pots, ramen and bubble tea, opened Friday at 312 E.
Third St. in south Bethlehem.
The 60-seat eatery, between Playa Bowls and Dinky’s Ice Cream Parlor & Grille, offers a dozen Taiwanese hot pot varieties, including Korean kimchi, lamb, healthy veggie, seafood lobster and Japanese miso.
The simmering pots of broth, ranging in price from $13.99 to $20.99, contain fish, meats, vegetables and other ingredients.
Owner Michael Zhuo labels the business’ most popular selection to be the “stinky tofu hot pot,” which comes with pork slices, Taiwanese cabbage, fermented tofu, vermicelli, enoki mushrooms, quail eggs, mini sausage and more.
“The ‘smelly’ taste mainly comes from the unique ingredients such as stinky tofu and pork chitterlings,” a message on the business’ website reads.
Hi-Pot, which has six other locations open or coming soon along the East Coast, also serves such appetizers as baby octopus salad, garlic pork belly and spicy cumin lamb; ramen selections such as miso, shoyu and tonkotsu; and desserts like milk herbal jelly and mango sago. Info: 610-868-8888; hipot.com.
Promenade Shops losses
The Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley, which was closed from March 17 through June 5 due to the pandemic, within the past few months has lost three major chains — tween fashion retailer Justice, women’s clothier New York & Company and children’s apparel and accessories company The Children’s Place.
The departed retailers join a growing list of recently vacated Promenade Shops businesses, including Auntie Anne’s and Center Valley Creamery, Cosi, Crepe Soleil, Learning Express Toys, Portrait Innovations and PacSun, which all closed their locations at the 2845 Center Valley Parkway shopping center within the past year.
The outdoor center, which opened in 2006 with more than 70 retailers and restaurants, now features at least 18 vacant storefronts.
That total brings The Promenade Shops’ vacancy rate to about 25%, more than double the U.S. neighborhood and community shopping center retail vacancy rate, which was 10.2% as of January, according to real estate research firm Reis Inc.
On Wednesday, Carol Tomaszewski, The Promenade Shops’ marketing coordinator, acknowledged that “retail is certainly experiencing some headwinds” with COVID-19 and a rash of business bankruptcies, but she also affirmed the center’s leasing team is “actively working on backfilling those vacancies” and the center is “wellpositioned for the future.”
“Lifestyle centers are easy to navigate, feature the convenience of drive-up parking at each tenant’s front door and provide shoppers with the ability to control their experience and to maintain social distancing,” Tomaszewski said. “… Factor in other benefits, such as plenty of fresh, clean air, no main entrance doors to touch and open, no elevators and escalators to ride and no cramped food courts — lifestyle centers provide a safer atmosphere for shoppers and our tenants.”
Justice is permanently closing more than 600 of its stores nationwide as part of parent company Ascena Retail Group’s bankruptcy, according to a July 23 USA Today article, and New York & Company parent company RTW Retailwinds announced in mid-July that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to permanently close most, if not all, of its nearly 400 U.S. stores, according to a July 13 CNBC article.
The Children’s Place, which continues to operate locations at the Lehigh Valley Mall and Palmer Park Mall, announced in June that it plans to close 300 stores — about a third of its retail footprint — over the next two years to proactively address “the future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Closing note
More than two dozen Lehigh Valley businesses, including popular Allentown
restaurants Bay Leaf, Ritz Barbecue and The Pub by Wegmans, have closed permanently amid the pandemic.
Another longstanding restaurant has joined this growing list: Paulie’s Family Restaurant, at 1214 Chestnut St. in Coplay, closed permanently earlier this month.
“We want to thank each and every one for your patronage over the years,” owner Paul Cottone and his family wrote in an Aug. 3 post on the business’ Facebook page. “It has been a tough decision. We will miss you all.”
The post garnered more than 70 comments, mostly from customers lamenting the loss and wishing the owners well.
“I felt like I was living ‘Cheers’ when going to Paulies,” Rose McCormick Stegemerten wrote. “It was like family and the breakfast was the best.”