With a competitive Pirates team slated to help lead off Major League Baseball’s “Star-Spangled Sunday” slate of 15 games on NBC, an Oakland ice cream shop drew a good crowd on Friday with a home run promotion engineered by the network and the league.
Along with 14 other ice cream shops in various cities, Dave & Andy’s Homemade Ice Cream celebrated the occasion by dealing out 400 free ice-cold “Star-Spangler Sundaes” — inspired by the city’s cookie table tradition wherein wedding guests contribute to a massive table of assorted sweets — on a meltingly hot Friday with temps reaching the upper nineties.
Between baseball, the heat and the Fourth of July weekend, the parlor offered a simple pleasure that met the moment. Outside, an employee in a refrigerated food truck with the back opened up to the blistering heat had lamented that he “didn’t want to leave the truck” until he saw a pedestrian walk by with a stacked sundae.
“We wanted to pay tribute to our Pittsburgh roots, so everything here is homemade,” said owner Sarah Kasten. “Our base ice cream on the sundae is a wedding cake flavor, white cake flavor with white cake pieces and strawberry preserves. It’s topped with cookie pieces, which are chocolate chip, peanut butter, thumbprint and brownie with whipped cream, red- white and-blue sprinkles and a cherry.”
Each was dolloped into a miniature upside-down baseball helmet.
The dozens of guests on hand around noon included a bevy of breaking students, young UPMC professionals and several families. Each was invited to wear MLB baseball gear, including the Pirates’ black and gold as the team recently notched its best record halfway through the season since 2015: the team enters Fourth of July weekend at .500.
”We had a line out the door when we first opened,” said Kasten. “So we’re just really grateful and glad everyone got to come out today.”
Reviews were positive.
“It’s amazing, everything about it,” said Kevin Rudlinger of South Park, who was there with his wife and three girls. “The kids love it.”
“It’s really good,” confirmed Hannah Pope. “The brownie was probably the best part.”
With plans on deck to hit up the parade on Saturday, he and his family’s spirits about the Pirates’ three-game away series against the Nationals Friday-Sunday were high.
“I love that they’re playing good,” said Rudlinger. “The pitching could be better, but the rotation is still good. The batting has been a lot better than I expected.”
A pair of friends in Point Park student Cooper Slocum and Pitt student Lindsey Krieger were catching up for the summer when they stumbled upon Dave and Andy’s in the sweltering heat. Krieger was set to do an admirable tour of Fourth of July weekend festivities in Pittsburgh that included a Pirates game, the Noah Kahan concert and fireworks.
“I honestly don’t know what’s going on,” said Slocum with a laugh. “We didn’t even know this was happening and then were like ‘Oh, free ice cream? Heck yeah!’”
“We came as paying customers,” laughed Krieger.
They gave their Instagram-style review of the new special item.
“The flag is super cute and the bowl it comes in,” said Slocum as the pair reveled in the sweetness. “There’s a lot of flavors happening.”
Fully immersed in summer vibes, Krieger was simply looking forward to watching her team.
“I’m really proud of them!” she said.
The ice cream shop on Atwood Street in Oakland opened in 1983 and features more than 200 flavors.