New State College water ice shop will serve stadium-style concessions. See the menu
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- A Polish Water Ice franchise will soon open in downtown State College.
- The shop will offer stadium-style concessions, water ice and Hershey’s Ice Cream.
- After completing its soft opening, the shop expects to stay open until 3 a.m. on weekends.
A new water ice shop will soon serve up frozen sweets and stadium-style concessions in State College.
A Polish Water Ice franchise plans to open at 127 W. Beaver Ave. by the end of April, franchisee Miklos Vajda told the Centre Daily Times. It will be the brand’s first franchise to serve food and the second to offer Hershey’s Ice Cream.
Vajda, a former concessions manager at Penn State venues like Beaver Stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center, said the shop will serve a wide range of quick-service meals like chicken tender baskets, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and cheesesteaks, as well as chicken wings, Polish sausages and funnel cakes. The menu is expected to use price points that can fit comfortably in students’ budgets, he said.
“If I can sell 900 chicken tender baskets during a football game, it goes to show the product is solid and something people want,” Vajda said. “[Our menu] is going to be family-friendly. You’re going to walk in here and be able to have a decent meal with ice cream and a drink without breaking the budget.”
The shop’s namesake water ice brand is fat-free, cholesterol-free and dairy-free. Polish Water Ice currently offers more than 20 flavors, including apple, blue raspberry, cherry, cotton candy, watermelon and cola, and customers are welcome to mix flavors.
Polish Water Ice is known for its smooth consistency that derives from its franchises’ machinery and a secret family recipe, the brand says. Vajda plans to use a push cart freezer to hand out free samples to those who attend local events like State College’s First Friday series and summer’s Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.
“It’s a great product,” Vajda said. “Most water ice is manufactured, packed and put into a freezer. Ours is made using soft-serve machines, and it’ll come out just like soft-serve ice cream. There’s no ice flavor despite the title.”
State College’s franchise is not expected to immediately offer Polish Water Ice when it opens in the coming weeks as the shop works to install the property machinery and smooth over some permitting and zoning issues. Water ice should be ready by May, Vajda said.
The shop’s food menu and Hershey’s ice cream will be ready to roll when it launches with a soft opening by the end of April. No opening date has been finalized as the shop waits for a final health inspection from the State College borough.
After completing its soft opening period, the shop is expected to operate from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Those hours may change as the Polish Water Ice finds its footing, Vajda said.
State College’s Polish Water Ice shop will be the second franchise in Pennsylvania, joining another in Fogelsville near Allentown. The other nine franchises spread across New Jersey and Maryland are mostly located in seaside towns.
The shop is currently hiring shift managers, line cooks and front counter workers. The franchise could hire up to 20 workers, though many positions are likely to be part-time roles.
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