Nothing like an old-fashioned ice cream stand: Stricklands marks 90 years

Stricklands offers four flavors a day - vanilla, chocolate and two others that rotate.

AKRON, Ohio – In a way, Stricklands was destined to take off - literally.

Back in 1936, Bill Strickland liked the location for his ice cream stand because planes were taking off and landing right across the street.

“What better spot in Akron, Ohio, to watch airplanes?” owner Scott Margroff said. “People would line up along the roadway to watch airplanes, dirigibles and blimps come in. He decided this would be the spot.”

In good weather, the line can wrap around the stand and into the parking lot.

Those blimps, an Akron thing, never get old. And neither does Stricklands.

Every city has to have an old-fashioned ice cream stand, and in the Rubber City, Stricklands fits the bill. It’s marking its 90th anniversary.

Across the street from the original location on Triplett Boulevard stands the air dock, its huge doors swinging open for blimps to maneuver in their slow-as-molasses pace. Nearby is the site of the Rubber Bowl, the stadium that was home to the University of Akron football team and which hosted concerts and events. And up the hill is Derby Downs, attracting scores of Soap Box Derby kids with different backgrounds and a shared love of ice cream. The derby’s inaugural race in Akron took place in 1935.

Jake and father Scott Margroff operate Stricklands.

And through the decades, the same family has owned Stricklands.

“We get asked that all the time, ‘Why isn’t it called Margroff’s?’” Scott said.

Bill Strickland is Scott’s great uncle. He ran it from 1936 to 1965, and sold it to Scott’s dad Larry, his mom and grandmother. Scott took it over in 1995. He and his son Jake operate the original. Jake’s sister has kids “so the fifth generation is coming up,” he said.

Margroff remembers his grandmother going to the cooler in the back of the lot to haul in large metal containers. They still use machines that date to the 1930s.

The original Stricklands is on Triplett Boulevard in Akron.

“Bill Strickland, during the war, couldn’t find any eggs because they were all rationed,” Margroff said. “You had to get coupons. So he would go to his friends and buy their coupons so he could have eggs, and he’d make the mix in his garage.”

The stand across from the air dock in Akron has been owned by the same family since 1936.

Scott’s dad operated military cranes during the Korean War and was hesitant about taking over the stand. But Bill approached him:

Scott recalled Bill’s pitch to Larry: “I’m done. You want it?”

“So he worked cranes all day, ice cream all night for as long as I could remember,” Scott said. “I didn’t see my father much.”

In 1981, Scott started as a full-time manager. In 1995, his dad had had enough.

“And,” chimed Jake, Scott’s son, “I got a long future ahead of me.”

Jake started when he was 14 at the Montrose location.

They have six locations - five in Northeast Ohio, with one in Costa Mesa, California, owned by an Akron native. All but the original are franchised.

Jake majored in entrepreneurship and finance at Butler University, where he played baseball. Covid put a crimp in his career, so he found himself with time to learn the ins and outs of the family business.

That business has had its share of famous customers over the years.

Jim Brown stopped by, and Bob Feller- whose rookie season was the year Stricklands opened - signed autographs. And Jack Nicklaus took ice-cream breaks when he competed at Firestone Country Club.

“My father loved Jack Nicklaus,” Scott said. “He’d see the Golden Bear jet land. Jack would come over, he’d shake my dad’s hand.”

“Being here for so long our brand name is strong,” said Scott, adding that customers frequently say, “I’m from Tennessee, I’m from Texas, I have to come here, been coming here since I was a kid.”

The seasonal business closes the first week of November and opens in March. They use downtime to maintain the 1930s machines, repaint and inspect stores.

“When you’re an owner-operator it’s seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and it’s kind of nice to have three months off to recharge your batteries,” Scott said.

That recharging is important when you are churning out close to 65 flavors. Everything is made in small batches daily. But at any time there are only four flavors – two special, vanilla and chocolate. They change flavors every three days.

Getting those flavors just right is what sets Stricklands apart, they said.

Scott said they pay attention to the amount of air in their product. A propeller in the machines slowly churns it “so it’s not whipped full of air. That’s why it’s smooth in your mouth.”

“Ice cream is mostly water,” he added. “The smaller you get the water crystal, the smoother and better it is in your mouth. The final thing is temperature. We like to serve ours between 19 and 22 degrees. That’s when it’s soft and more flavorful on your palate.”

Those traits, he said, are what “makes Stricklands, Stricklands.”

Extra pints and quarts go in the cooler for sale. If a customer wants, say, pistachio or banana and they have moved on to the next flavor, it might be in the cooler, but only briefly.

The Margroffs have resisted retail distribution. Scott said he doesn’t want the product to languish on shelves and lose freshness.

The question for all ice-cream shop owners: How do you not gain weight?

“That’s the bad part about working here; you have to sample and make sure it’s up to our quality,” Jake said. “Interview me in our 100th-year interview, and I’ll come waddling through this door.”

Scott took a more serious approach: “You’re also walking a lot.”

They began offering franchises in 2002, Scott said. They look for a prospective owner’s passion in the product. They want the ice-cream machine in view so customers can see it being made. Windows facing customers is important. It’s about efficiency and visibility, he said.

Then there’s the taste. Stricklands is an ice cream stand, but know this: The difference between custard and ice cream? Egg yolks. Stricklands has alternated using and not using eggs over the decades. When people spoke up about allergies, they stopped using them. (Franchises have the option to use eggs.)

The misnomer, Jake said, is that people think soft serve is custard and hard pack is ice cream. Not true.

“It’s 100 percent custard except for the egg yolk. Tastes like it, looks like it, feels like it. Everything about it, except for the allergens,” Scott said.

“We kind of realize our weak suit here is not being a lot of variety. … We make it fresh every single day. One way to add a lot of variety is to add a lot of different toppings, Twisters, milkshakes. That way customers can get what they’re looking for,” Jake said.

Bill Strickland never told anyone what the daily flavors were. If a grocer called saying, “Hey, we’re running banana specials,” Bill would buy the discounted fruit.

His feeling, Scott said, was simple: “If you could ever get someone in your store, they’re going to buy it no matter what.”

The Margroffs plan two daily flavors du jour. Pairs introduced in March included grape and chocolate chip mint; Oreo and maple; and peanut butter and strawberry cheesecake.

Serving those cones efficiently is key for the business, which has 25 employees – four full-time and a bunch of high schoolers looking to make a few bucks.

On a busy day, Jake will spot someone at the end of the line and time how long it takes for them to get to the front. A recent line tallied only eight minutes. Time for a lot of cones to be sold.

Scott Margroff has been at it for more than 40 years.

“I don’t think I could ever truly leave it,” he said.

Added Jake: “I’ll take it over, but he’ll always be a part of it.”