{"id":80809,"date":"2026-01-08T01:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/80809\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T01:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:07:10","slug":"lehigh-valley-ice-cream-shop-bids-farewell-as-owners-focus-on-other-sweet-spots-eat-sip-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/80809\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Valley ice cream shop bids farewell as owners focus on other sweet spots | Eat, Sip, Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 A destination for decadent chilled treats has ended operations in Northampton County.<\/p>\n

Twisted & Dipped, a soft-service ice cream concept featuring unique flavor combinations, closed in late December at 446 Main St. in downtown Bethlehem, co-owner Rick Pongracz said.<\/p>\n

\"Twisted<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ryan Kneller<\/p>\n

Pongracz and his partner, Manny Rodriguez, are looking to focus on their other businesses \u2013 Batch Microcreamery and Wondaffle.<\/p>\n

Batch Microcreamery, offering super premium, hand-crafted ice cream, milkshakes, sundaes and other cool treats, got its start in 2019 at now-closed stands in local food halls.<\/p>\n

Today, Batch has its own year-round, brick-and-mortar store, which opened in March 2023<\/a> at Promenade Saucon Valley in Upper Saucon Township.<\/p>\n

Batch also operates a seasonal location at Shepherd Hills Golf Club in Lower Macungie Township along with a food truck that can be booked for private events. The business also wholesales its ice cream to local restaurants.<\/p>\n

Wondaffle \u2013 a waffles and ice cream concept \u2013 opened in March 2025<\/a> at 307 E. Third St. in south Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

There are no plans to relocate the Twisted & Dipped concept, Pongracz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBatch is our bread and butter,\u201d Pongracz explained. \u201cThat\u2019s how we got into the business \u2013 making ice cream, and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on.”<\/p>\n

Twisted & Dipped opened in July 2024<\/a> and was originally a collaboration between the owners of Batch and Upper Macungie Township-based Truffle Bar.<\/p>\n

Truffle Bar, offering hand-crafted chocolate truffles in a variety of flavors\u00a0along with other treats such as chocolate-covered pretzels, strawberries and cookies, left Twisted & Dipped in early 2025, and the Bethlehem shop’s menu then centered around its ice cream dessert offerings.<\/p>\n

Customers could enjoy a wide array of signature soft-serve creations (vanilla, chocolate or twist), featuring hard-dip flavors, including \u201cBack for S\u2019more\u201d (chocolate dip, marshmallow sauce, graham cracker and vanilla ice cream), \u201cLights Caramel Action\u201d (salted caramel dip, chocolate sauce, crushed pretzels and vanilla ice cream) and \u201cBlueberry Crumble\u201d (blueberry dip, blueberry crumb, blueberry sauce and vanilla ice cream).<\/p>\n

Other menu highlights included Twisters (soft-serve blended with one dip and one topping), infused cones (soft-serve ice cream infused with one sauce of choice) and cookie sundaes (Oreo or chocolate chip cookie with choice of vanilla, chocolate or twist ice cream, one dip, one topping and whipped cream).<\/p>\n

Prior to Twisted & Dipped, the Main Street space housed Chocolate Lab, a shop offering handmade chocolate bars, fudge, truffles and other confections, which closed in April 2024<\/a> as founder and chocolatier Arlene Brockel retired from the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 A destination for decadent chilled treats has ended operations in Northampton County. Twisted & Dipped,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,31598,40942,157,4690,40940,40939,40943,40941],"class_list":{"0":"post-80809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-downtown-bethlehem","12":"tag-ice-cream","13":"tag-lehigh-valley","14":"tag-main-street","15":"tag-manny-rodriguez","16":"tag-rick-pongracz","17":"tag-soft-serve-ice-cream","18":"tag-twisted-dipped"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}