MilkShake Factory is now serving on Route 35 in Middletown, at 1377 Route 35, open every day from noon to 10 p.m. The shop makes its ice cream in house and spins shakes to order, and it sells the chocolates that started the business more than a century ago in a Pittsburgh soda fountain. To mark the opening, the Middletown store is running a drawing for free milkshakes for a year.

What it sells

The menu is built around handspun milkshakes made with ice cream the company says it makes fresh in each store every day. The signature order is the Chocolate Dipped Strawberry shake. The menu is split into limited-time, signature, gourmet and classic shakes, plus non-dairy options for customers who skip milk and a section of items that are not shakes at all, including craft sundaes and the Molten Chocolate Cups the company added as a permanent menu item.

The chocolate counter is the other half of the store. MilkShake Factory sells chocolate barks in several varieties along with the caramels and terrapins the family has made for generations. For groups, it packs Chocolate Gathering Boards, an assortment of barks cut into bite-sized pieces, and a smaller Sharable Snacking Trio of its most-ordered flavors. The Middletown store takes those orders through an inquiry form on its location page, which makes it a local option for office parties and holiday gatherings over the next six weeks.

A soda fountain family from Pittsburgh

The company traces itself to 1914, when Charlie and Orania, immigrants from Greece, opened a chocolate shop and soda fountain in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood. At the time few households had home refrigeration, so ice cream and a handmade milkshake were a trip out rather than something kept in the freezer.

A second generation joined around 1950 and kept the fountain running. In 1973 the third generation moved chocolate making out of the back of the store and into a factory a few blocks from the original fountain. The fourth generation was born in 1980 and grew up around that factory.

In 1995 the family's chocolate shop on Pittsburgh's South Side, known for its red tin ceiling, became popular enough that it would later become the first MilkShake Factory. The name itself came out of a college business project by Dana, a fourth-generation family member, in 2003, when the fourth generation took over and built a menu around inventive shake flavors. By 2016 the company had opened retail locations across the Pittsburgh region, and it is now growing across the country, including through franchised stores.

Finding it

The Middletown store is at 1377 Route 35 and its phone number is 732-893-0154. Hours are noon to 10 p.m., seven days a week. The free-milkshakes-for-a-year drawing is valid at the Middletown location only, and the store notes that restrictions apply; details are on its location page.

MilkShake Factory also runs a loyalty rewards program and sells gift cards, both available through its website, for anyone who becomes a regular or wants a stocking stuffer.

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