Recipes are key at soon-to-open West Oak Lane water-ice stand

Herman Townsville will welcome this summer season by opening his new ice cream and water-ice parlor in West Oak Lane.

Townsville bought the building at the corner of Stenton and Ogontz avenues this past December.

With the help of his builders, his vision of selling homemade ice cream and water ice, with fresh ingredients and an old friend’s recipes, has finally started to come to life.

“I got the idea from an old friend of mine named Josepie,” he said. “The parlor is going to be named Josepie’s Water Ice.”

During the season, there will be 16 different flavors of water ice and ice cream, but only eight featured flavors at a time.

Location, location, location

As a real estate developer, Townsville saw great potential for his shop in this location. He strategically chose it for two reasons: It’s near a busy intersection and there are several schools nearby.

He said he expects to hold the grand opening for Josepie’s Water Ice anytime between the second week to the end of June.

On that day, the water ice will be free.

“I think it is going to be an excellent business for this area,” Townsville said. “The only thing we need to be is consistent, clean and make good water ice, and we will get the costumers.”

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Jessie Fox and Kaila Gantt are students at Temple University. Philadelphia Neighborhoods, a NewsWorks content partner, is an initiative of the Temple Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab.