Leona's Ice Cream preparing to move from Butler Street food hall for its own East End storefront
The Wilkinsburg-based ice cream company, which has grown a substantial wholesale business in which its brand is available in various locations throughout the region, has committed to move its shop to a 400-square-foot location at 5119 Penn Avenue, a busy block in Garfield amid such established businesses as Two Frays Brewing and People's Indian Restaurant.
'We would like to be independent and be able to explore more creative opportunities for our products,' said Katie Heldstab who owns Leona's, LLC with her wife and partner Christa Puskarich. 'Garfield is ripe for a little bit of an insurgence of new stuff.'
She added another key factor: there's no other ice cream shop along the Penn Avenue business district of Garfield.
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