{"id":6631,"date":"2016-03-16T06:19:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T10:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=6631"},"modified":"2016-04-06T12:21:59","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T16:21:59","slug":"isalys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/03\/16\/isalys\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaly’s in Oakland and the secret to Skyscraper Ice Cream Cone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Take <\/a>
Take your choice of flavors says Carl Lueddy, Isaly’s employee with a 27-year service record. Some homemaker attending the cooking school will receive a certificate for $20 in Isaly dairy products (undated Post-Gazette photo). <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Tom <\/a>
Tom and Gail Weisbecker have owned and operated this Isaly’s store for 32 years in West View. Six years ago, they sold the store and retired. The new owners continued running it as an Isaly’s. It is one of the few Isaly’s stores left in the area. (Kurt Weber\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This is the recipe for Isaly’s BBQ sauce, sent in by reader Judy Melvin of Oakmont. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Isaly <\/a>
Isaly Dairy Co 1957 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Isaly's <\/a>
Isaly’s employee George Aston (40 yr. employee, 15 at the Oakland store) DoloresB luemle have worked for Isaly’s a total of 75 years. Photo was taken in 1984 (Marlene Karas\/Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A 1958 photo shows the Isaly’s at the corner of Butler and 43rd streets in Lawrenceville. (Courtesy Archive Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dick <\/a>
Dick Lewis, the present owner, makes a “Skyscrapper” ice cream cone with “White House Ice Cream”. The skyscrapper was the signature ice cream and was created with a special scoop that he still has in use. He learned to make them in this store as a teenager in the early fifties working for his uncle. Privately owned Isaly’s in Irwin has been in operation since 1944. (Post Gazette Photo by V.W.H. Campbell Jr.) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Right <\/a>
Right on Route 88 in Carroll township the Italian Country Club Deli boasts to be the home of the Isaly’s’ original ice cream. (Robert J. Pavuchak\/Post-Gazette photos) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Men <\/a>
Men and women workers lined up at an Ohio Isaly’s in the 1930s. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

It’s been more than 30 years since the legendary part of Pittsburgh’s food scene faded away from its landmark location on Boulevard of the Allies. But when you hear native Pittsburghers talk about historic ‘happening’ food scenes that represent more than just a ‘grabbing something to eat’ kinda place, you’ll most certainly hear a story or two or maybe ten about Isaly’s, the famous dairy that offered chipped ham and legendary Skyscraper Cones formed by special spoons. Oh, and the Klondike ice cream bar also took its wrapped-in-chocolate shape at Isaly’s, it’s just that only few people know about it because corporate transitions erased all signals tracing Klondikes back to Isaly’s.<\/p>\n

What’s in the name? It’s a family name. William Isaly founded the company in 1902 in Ohio, the Pittsburgh branch was established 30 years later by his son Henry. To remember the name and help people with the spelling of Isaly’s a marketing campaign suggested a read-out — I<\/em> S<\/em><\/strong>till A<\/em><\/strong>lways L<\/em><\/strong>ove Y<\/em><\/strong>ou S<\/em><\/strong>weetheart.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh loved it back.<\/p>\n

“During the ’40s, ’50s and ’60,” according to The Pittsburgh Press, “It was not uncommon on Saturday and Sunday evenings for hundreds of parents with anxious youngsters in tow from throughout the Tri-State area to queue up at Isaly’s 40-yard-long front counter.<\/p>\n

The visitors would park their cars in Isaly’s huge lot and scurry inside to wait patiently for up to 30 clerks — many of whom were working their way through college — to scoop up their favorite delicacies.”<\/p>\n

When the Oakland location was shutting down, one loyal visitor shook his head in disbelief: “I don’t understand it. I’ve been coming in here for over 40 years. My father brought me here for ice cream when I was about 5 years old.”<\/p>\n

Isaly’s purists saw it coming. The demise started in the 1970s, they say, when Isaly’s stopped making its famous dairy products at its Oakland headquarters. It really started going down when the ownership changed and new management sold the Boulevard of the Allies property to Presbyterian-University for $3.3 million.<\/p>\n

The Making of an Ice Cream Cone was an undertaking which required skill and precision, it was a challenge to “create a perfectly symmetrical, tall, creamy cylinder that could be slipped into the cone — without tipping over.” It had to be scooped out “just right.”<\/p>\n

A key to success was the unusually shaped scoop with Isaly’s label on the handle. For a long time, legend had it that after the family sold the stores, they buried the original scoops behind the Boulevard of the Allies headquarters in fear that they will be stolen. So, the grandfather of the family and his close colleagues buried them, allegedly at the spot that has been serving as a parking lot. That legend is impossible to check on — there is a parking lot at the location indeed. What’s underneath? Who knows\u2026<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long before Dairy Queen or Happy Berry, 50 years ago Isaly’s in Oakland was a destination for Skyscraper Ice Cream and chopped chipped ham (and its customers appreciated the combination). <\/p>\n

Look at the picturesIsaly’s in Oakland and the secret to Skyscraper Ice Cream Cone<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[945],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/62800K9O-1.jpg?fit=2537%2C1847&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":493,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/07\/07\/the-t-j-keenan-building\/","url_meta":{"origin":6631,"position":0},"title":"The T.J. 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