Ritter’s Owners Hire to Help Students Pay for College

Before John Ritter, founder of the Ritter’s Frozen Custard stores that are headquartered in New York, opened his first shop in 1989 in Indiana, he worked at an ice cream store during his high school years.

He eventually served in the Navy, became an aerial photographer, left the service and pursued a 35-year animation production career mostly based in Chicago, Illinois. But Ritter never forgot about the ice cream shop he once worked at as a highschooler.

Upon his retirement from animation production, Ritter took on the business venture he’s most known for today: establishing Ritter’s Frozen Custard.

About 50 nationwide franchises and 13 years later, today local Eric Treichel employs numerous high schoolers and college students at Palm Harbor’s Ritter’s Frozen Custard location, located at 2665 E. Lake Road, and he’s doing so with a goal:

“We’re trying to get them through college debt free,” said Treichel, whose two sons also work at the establishment.

Treichel, who has co-owned the business for about 2.5 years with his wife Mary, said that one was of the main reasons why they bought the store, which has been open for about six years, though they frequently visited the store as customers before they bought it. They said they wanted to have a place where there two sons could work and save up for college.

The other reason was so that Treichel could take on a business venture of his own.

“It was kind of a bucket list to own a business,” said Treichel, who also works at a local bank when he’s not opening or closing the store or making pies and other dessert items for customers.

Treichel moved to Florida in 1989 with his wife from Cleveland, Ohio to get away from the lagging banking and commercial real estate markets in that area. Initially buying a home in Seminole, they eventually moved to the Palm Harbor area so that their son could attend the local schools.

Then about three years ago Treichel started looking at businesses that were for sale when he came across the name Ritter’s Frozen Custard in a listing. He decided to take up the opportunity to own his own business via Ritter’s opening and has been managing the establishment ever since, with his wife handling the marketing and employee scheduling end of the work.

“We enjoyed the place and it was part of the community, so it was nice,” said Treichel, whose wife has been the youth director at East Lake United Methodist Church for about 10 years.

Today Palm Harbor’s Ritter’s employs about eight high school and college students, including Treichel’s two sons, one of which is a junior at East Lake High School and has been working there for about three years. Treichel’s other son is a sophomore at the University of Florida at Gainesville and works at the store when he is home on vacations.

“It’s a small business, and it’s still a rough economy,” said Mary Treichel, co-owner of Ritter’s. “But we enjoy it.”

Being one of four Ritter’s franchises in the state of Florida, the others being located in Clermont, Margate and Port Orange, the main and most obvious feature that makes the store different than other ice cream stores in the area is its main product: frozen custard.

“It’s a lot softer and creamier than ice cream, and it has a lot less whipped-in air,” said Austin Treichel, 16, an employee at Ritter’s and a junior at East Lake High School.

He added that frozen custard has a reduced amount of butter fat and that eggs are used in the ingredients, unlike ice cream.

“Some people don’t know what frozen custard is, so we tell them it’s ice cream,” said Eric Treichel, co-owner of Ritter’s, adding that frozen custard stores are more common in northern states than they are in Florida.

Treichel said that all of Ritter’s products, including a wide range of frozen custard flavors, cones, sundaes, gelatis, cakes, pies, Italian ice and others, are made on location. Every batch of frozen custard is made by supervisors first thing in the morning and throughout the day as needed on a daily basis.

Treichel says some of the store’s most popular flavors include turtle, a vanilla, chocolate and caramel flavor, banana berry, brownie fudge ripple and black raspberry chip, which includes real fruit and chocolate chunks. He added that sugar-free vanilla and strawberry flavors are also available for diabetics.

Mary Treichel said that customers of all ages come into the store for their desserts, from families to couples, high school students, children and even people from hospitals who are looking to put on weight.

Prices range from $2.99 for a single scoop of frozen custard to $6.89 for a take-home quart.

As far as the future goes for the Treichels, they say they’re taking it day by day, year by year with the initial goal in mind:

“Get the boys through college debt free – I think that’s the only way to live,” said Treichel, whose youngest son hopes to attend the University of Florida upon his graduation from East Lake High School. “I don’t look that far ahead. It goes by quick enough.”

If you go

What: Ritter’s Frozen Custard

Where: 2665 E. Lake Road in Palm Harbor

Hours: 1 p.m. –  9 p.m. on Sundays through Thursdays, 1 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays

Price: $2.99 for a single scoop, $3.79 for two scoops and $4.19 for three scoops with a wide variety of other dessert items

Contact: 727-784-0220