Erie ice cream shop Whippy Dip celebrates 60 years on West 26th Street
Katie Huya Gress, 40, has worked at the Whippy Dip since she was 14, through college and beyond. All she ever wanted to do was own an ice cream shop.
Fairview’s Castle Mini Golf and Castle Ice Cream are for sale together or separately.The asking price is $450,000 for both businesses and the land, or $275,000 for the ice cream stand and $350,000 for the mini golf course.
Minitature golf fans, grab your ice cream-loving friends, gather your clams, and see if you have enough to play and eat as much as you want, indefinitely. Castle Mini Golf, 7354 West Lake Road, and Castle Ice Cream, 7334 West Lake Road, both in Fairview, are for sale, together or separately.
Owners Lloyd and Janice Fohner, both 75, who started the businesses with the ice cream stand in 2004 — adding the mini golf course in 2006 — are ready to “do some other things,” Lloyd Fohner said, adding that it would be easy for anyone to take over.
“We have an excellent staff,” he said of his 16 employees. “Kids start in 10th grade and stay through college, and our managers are also excellent.”
“We have a short season,” he said. “Just Mother’s Day to Labor Day.”
He said the two plots total approximately 9 acres: 2.49 acres for the ice cream stand, which includes a drive-through; and 6.37 acres for the 18-hole mini-golf plot with extensive landscaping. He said there’s plenty of room to add other attractions, such as batting cages, go-karts, climbing walls, as well as expand the food options.
How much for the properties?
The Fohners are asking $450,000 for the land and both businesses together, or $275,000 for the ice cream and $350,000 for the mini golf separately. The properties went on the market with Agresti Real Estate in May.
Lloyd Fohner said after building the ice cream stand, he wanted to develop the other plot, and his wife, Janice Fohner, told him, “Do anything but a mini-golf course.”
“I said ‘Excellent idea,'” Lloyd Fohner said, adding that his father-in-law owned a mini-golf course. “After I built it, she was OK with it,” he said with a laugh.
He said when they started in 2004, they served custard, which is 14% butterfat, and he was making it himself after his other job, finishing at 2 a.m. That got old, and the price of the ingredients skyrocketed, he said, so he switched to Hershey’s ice cream in 2013. His favorite is cookies and cream. They also sell soft-serve ice cream in vanilla, chocolate and twist.
Janice Fohner taught third grade in the Fairview School District for 40 years.
“That’s how she can put up with me,” Lloyd Fohner said, chuckling.
Plans after running Castle businesses
Lloyd Fohner wouldn’t say what his plans are post-Castle, but said the issue isn’t financial. He’s just restless.
“It’s not the money, it’s the time,” he said. “It takes time.”
Janice Fohner called the sale “our swan song,” and looks forward to finding out who will buy it.
“I hope they ask for help,” she said. “We’ve learned a lot along the way.”
Contact Jennie Geisler at jgeisler@timesnews.com. Find her weekly newsletter at https://profile.goerie.com/newsletters/erielicious/.
