Apr 23, 2019 6 min read

The weather is warmer, the plants are in bloom and the Pittsburgh Pirates are playing baseball once again. That means it’s also ice cream season and Canonsburg has just the place for everyone to enjoy this sweet treat. Whether you prefer hard pack or soft serve, custard or milkshakes, we have a round up of Canonsburg’s favorite frozen dessert spots which are all open for business now that spring has sprung.

Iceburg’s Ice Cream

66 W. Pike St., Canonsburg. 724.993.0661.

Iceburg’s Ice Cream opens its doors for ice cream lovers every late March through early October. Founded in 2014 by Tony and Cathy Menosky, this delicious ice cream spot at the corner of West Pike Street and Jefferson Avenue is a true family-run business with mom and dad running the show and one daughter handling marketing and graphic design.

“When you come to our shop, we usually know your name and you know ours,” Tony says. “It’s that kind of establishment.” Iceburg’s serves rich hard pack ice cream made by Betsy’s in Mt. Lebanon, but Tony Menosky says their soft serve is the real favorite.

“I never ate ice cream and my wife and kids ate ice cream every day for the last 25 years,” he says. “But my vanilla soft serve is just so good that I have to have it now. Just vanilla soft serve, nothing else.”

Customers order it plain or love to enjoy it in sundaes and milkshakes. This family spot doesn’t take a day off, running seven days a week through the summer season. “It’s a true family run business,” Menosky says. “We’re the neighborhood ice cream store, we like to say.”

Turtle Twist

1310 Route 980, Cecil. 724.746.7172. turtletwist.com.

Owners Jim and Colleen Tatano are in their 15th season of providing delicious frozen custard and other treats to fans and loyal customers of Turtle Twist.

“We used to go to the beach and my husband fell in love with an orange custard there,” Colleen says, “and he decided that he wanted to do this.”

It’s the custard that sets Turtle Twist apart in Canonsburg, with their recipe containing 10 percent butter fat and egg yolk.

“All of our flavors we mix here with flavoring,” Colleen says. “We make black raspberry or creamsicle or pistachio nut. We always have vanilla and chocolate and then every week we have a different Italian ice flavor and at least one custard flavor of the week.”

Some customers like to twist the custard and Italian ice together in a “Italian Twist.” Cones, sundaes and milkshakes are all on the menu here, along with ice cream pies for special occasions and a customer favorite – wet walnut sundae topping. Colleen says this family run business is a labor of love as her husband also works a full-time job.

“We have many of the same employees every summer for years,” she says. “It’s kind of become almost like a destination for people in the area that want to meet and greet. I’m in town, why don’t we go for ice cream?”

Lovie’s Frosty Twist

109 S. Main St., Houston. 724.746.9094.

Jennifer and Scott Sirakos are in their seventh season as owners of Lovie’s Frosty Twist. Scott owns a construction company and Jennifer works part time during winter, but both devote summers to Lovie’s and its scrumptious ice cream. The name comes from Scott’s mother, who was nicknamed Lovie.

“We always talk about how Grandma Lovie would have just loved this,” Jennifer says.

Their specialty is soft serve ice cream. “I have a lot of flavors. Of course, we have chocolate, vanilla and twist. But then I have a machine that we can do over 30 flavors of custom flavors,” Jennifer says.

Custom means that they mix flavors like cotton candy, watermelon and black raspberry right when your order it. Even after seven years of taste testing the product, Jennifer says she still loves ice cream just as much as her customers do.

“We have an old-fashioned feel because it’s a walk-up only,” she says. “We have malts, milkshakes, slushees, sundaes. A lot of people comment on how it reminds them of someplace they used to go when they were younger.”

Casciola’s Twin Twist

3407 Millers Run Road, Cecil. 724.745.8627.

Wendie and Ralph Liberatore are celebrating their 20th season as owners of Casciola’s. While the diner business was established years earlier and welcomes customers year round, the ice cream business came along later and is a seasonal customer favorite. Wendie says soft serve ice cream is the feature along with weekly features of hard pack sugar free ice cream and yogurt. Their ice cream machine makes a variety of delicious flavors in addition to chocolate and vanilla.

“The 29 flavors we add to the vanilla,” says Wendie. “So if you came in and wanted a strawberry cheesecake, we can do that – or mint or German chocolate. It gets added to the whole process.”

Owning an ice cream business means there’s always plenty of delicious temptation around, and Wendie says after 20 years, she still eats plenty of ice cream but usually sticks with the basics.

“I’m just a plain Jane,” she laughs. “I probably don’t eat many of the flavors. Maybe a vanilla cone with maybe a walnut topping.”

Sarris Candies Ice Cream Parlour

511 Adams Ave, Canonsburg. 724.745.4042. sarriscandies.com.

Even during winter’s cold weather, customers still come into Sarris Candies Ice Cream Parlour for their favorite frozen treat. The year-round ice cream business opened in 1985 alongside the candy company that Bill Sarris’ parents founded back in 1963.

What makes the hard pack ice cream so delicious?

“We make all of the ice cream and toppings in house,” Sarris says. “Fresh cream. It’s got a high butter fat in there, 14 and 16 percent butter fat.”

Their best sellers are still the basic flavors. “Because we do sundaes, banana splits, things like that, people want their favorite and they don’t go for fad things,” he says.

How does Sarris operate in such a candy, ice cream and sweet treat-filled environment after all of these years? A little bit of indulgence goes a long way. “I have candy on my desk,” he says. “If I have ice cream, I’ll get a scoop of vanilla with chocolate sauce and almonds. We taste everything, so every once in a while I’ll taste the toppings.”