My boyfriend and I are big fans of Handel's, but our experience on Saturday, April 11, made me question if we want to keep going there.
It was a nice night, so we decided to go out for ice cream after dinner. A lot of people felt that way, too. That's totally OK.
What was not OK was how Handel's handled it.
Handel's has signs explaining the flavors only inside. The photos of the flavors are huge and the text explaining what they are is so tiny that it's nearly impossible to read even if you're at the front of the line. Many people were holding up their phone cameras and zooming in to read the descriptions. I tried looking at their menu on my phone, but it listed many flavors they didn't have (pistachio, pineapple upside down) and no descriptions.
The ordering experience would be better if the descriptions of the flavors were in larger type on the store sign and/or if the website was updated with available flavors and descriptions and people could just look on their phones.
We waited in line for 40 minutes to order our ice cream. The whole time we waited, we watched as employees filled pints for DoorDash orders rather than bowls and cones for the people ordering inside. After we placed our order, we saw that every single employee behind the counter was busy filling pints instead of bowls and cones. The lines of people waiting to order and waiting to get their orders kept getting longer.
It all could have been handled much, much better.
Some options:
1. Handel's could have chosen not to take DoorDash orders when they had a line out the door.
2. They could have pints pre-scooped in a refrigerator like Owowcow does, so employees don't have to scoop pints as orders come in.
3. They could have one person designated to satisfying DoorDash orders while everyone else serves the customers who are waiting in line.