Sweet Summer Treats

At The Local Ice Cream Stand

By John Matuszak

Like magic, they open as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, perennial favorites tempting us with vivid colors and tantalizing fragrances.

These aren’t flowers, but other harbingers of summer: neighborhood ice cream stands.

Biggies Custard in Mentor-on-theLake, Frozen Dee-Lite in Parkman, Fantasy Delight in Aurora, Bidinger’s Ice Cream in Wadsworth, Dariview in Fairview Park... Northeast Ohio is lucky to have dozens of seasonal ice cream and custard stands, most serving families, ball teams and others for decades.

Open for a few brief, steamy months each summer, it’s showtime for neighborhood ice cream and custard stands like Parma’s Zero Zest on State Road in Parma, which dates to 1950, and Brayson’s nearby on Ridge Road.

Zero Zest owner Linda Champa sells prints of a photo of the stand at its original location. “We have a little bit of everything,” says Champa, who bought Zero Zest in 2016, after operating another shop for 10 years.

While giving a nod to the past, Champa is very much in the future, catering to evolving different tastes and dietary needs, such as vegan and dairyfree treats, along with traditional items.

Champa doesn’t know the origin of the name Zero Zest, but kept it because of its long presence in the community.

“I didn’t want to lose the mystique,” Champa says.

Zero Zest offers itself as an oasis from the bustle of everyday life. A sign in the window urges customers to “Take a 15-Minute Vacation” at the location.

Along with filling cones, Champa strives to be a positive influence on the young employees who work at the stand.

“They’re like my kids,” Champa says. “I don’t ask them to work any harder than I do, and I bust my butt.”

Champa exemplifies how a neighborhood business owner can have an impact far beyond the things they sell.

She recalls how she lent one of her employees money to help her attend nursing school. Years later, she ran into the woman, now the head of physical therapy for an area hospital.

Champa loves the work — in part, because she gets winters off. She doesn’t tire of ice cream and takes a treat home after every shift.

Nearby, at Brayson’s, 5840 Ridge Road in Parma, Jim Fritsche went from ice to ice cream. He spent 35 years as a hockey coach and trainer, then crafted an old-fashioned ice cream parlor at the building he’s owned for 35 years.

“I built everything myself,” says Fritsche… including the counters, seats and other fixtures.

He named the shop for his two twin grandsons, Brady and Mason,