Our family always enjoyed a trip to Isaly’s for a ice cream cone or bringing some hand packed ice cream home while living in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh. After a shopping trip with my grandparents, we always stopped at Isalys on Main Street in Butler. We loved the chip chopped ham. I didn’t realize that the Klondike bars we buy in upstate New York were made by Isalys until recently. A few years ago when visiting Butler, it looked like the Main Street store was long gone. We had a great dinner at Natilis Italian restaurant that has been family run for years.
I will never forget the famous ice cream at Isaly’s on each trip to Pittsburgh area. It was something to look forward to especially on hot summer nights! We made numerous road trips “back in the day” but always looked forward to Isaly’s when we got to Pittsburgh. Thanks for the memories …. Jeannie
Isaly’s chipped ham is like the best childhood memories between 2 slices of bread!
As a kid I remember my grandmother taking me to Pgh & McKeesport Isaly’ s and my favorite was the ham barbecue sandwich . Before moving to Florida 15 years ago the Irwin store was still there ,but even though we travel to Pgh .each year it has been forgotten about, but you can bet I will be picking up a batch of Isaly’s ham soon
My most vivid memory of Isaly’s was when I was eleven or twelve and I was given money to go get a pound of chipped ham. Mind you I lived in the projects in New Kensington and it was a very dangerous neighborhood. I was chased by three or four of the neighborhood boys for the money I had, I ran as fast as I could down to 5th avenue and ran into an Isaly’s and asked for help I was being robbed. The counter clerk stood in front of the door and waited for them to come in and try to rob me. They did not, he stood there until they left. He gave me an ice cream and told me to wait a while until things settled down. I waited a half hour and purchased the chipped ham and a loaf of bread. I thanked the gentleman and headed home. Wouldn’t you know that they were waiting around the corner for me and beat the living daylights out of me and took the food and left me lying there. Needless to say when I came home empty handed, I also got the crap beat out of me.Didn’t eat that night and had a broken nose and some ribs and punished for letting them rob me.Good times in good old New Kensington.
Being from Elizabeth Pa. My Mom and I would take the bus to McKeesport, Pa area for a day of shopping at the departments for clothes etc. The bus would let us off right in front of Islaly’s and of course we would be ready for our chipped ham barbecue sandwich. Then we stopped at Isaly’s for desert on the way home. Mom would have a cup of coffee and I always got a glacier ice cream cone. Since the bus would pick us up right in front of Isaly’s This was my memory of shopping with my Mom and lunch at Isaly’s with my Mom. Mom would make them at least once a month. After moving to Calif. My own return home trip would include a few pounds to take home to California Because the markets don’t know how to cut the chipped ham cut. Amen?
As a High School Junior/senior I worked evenings and on weekends at the Youngstown, Ohio Market Street/ Indianola store. My manager was Wesley Rarer and a better mentor I could never have had. He instilled good work habits, promoting one’s better traits and enhancing a personality of a retailer wanting to help and satisfy the customer’s wants. This lesson of meeting the public and providing a good, desirable service was never forgotten by me as a 15/16 year old boy who was working towards making his way in life. I stayed at this job/store until I graduated from Youngstown South High School in 1951 and later went on to spend 20 years in the USAF and another 20 years working with the US Army and I continuously applied the fundamentals of life and work place habits which Wesley Rarer had taught me. Wesley is long gone and I am 81 years old but I still remember the Isaly’s environment which groomed my onward positive habits which have helped me and my family thru the years.
When I went to Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio in 1949, the high point of the weekend was always a hike to Isaly’s for milk shakes.
I grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio that had an Isalys store. We used to get ice cream cones there but mostly we would get the best tasting chipped chopped ham ever. Until one winter there was a huge fire and it burned down. No more Isalys and the community lost a favorite landmark. Years later we all grew up and moved away. We later found out another store in Ashtabula called Albinos was selling the ham. When we returned to visit Mom in a nursing home we would go to that store to buy pounds of the chipped ham to take back to our local state where we live. Then, for some reason I googled where you could buy the ham and found out it couldn be bought in Maryland where my brother lives so on a visit to him lately, I stopped at a local Wal-Mart and purchased a few pounds and surprised my brother with it. He was real excited to know he didn’t have to go to Ashtabula just to buy the ham as Mom has recently passed away.
Isaly’s was the local delivery and ice cream store. There was one on Potomac Ave in Dormont Pa that I visited in the 50’s. Skyscapers, Klondikes, Chopped Chipped Ham, Banana Splits were the best. Never forget this legacy store of the Burgh 🙂
