A new Bruster’s Real Ice Cream location is opening up this summer at the border of Shadyside and Bloomfield.
Owner Chad McWreath said the new location at 4815 Centre Ave. is anticipating an opening in mid-July.
McWreath, 53, of Mt. Washington, already owns one Bruster’s location at 4584 Browns Hill Road in Squirrel Hill.
Before opening that Bruster’s in 2021, McWreath was an actor. Now, he said, he loves the ice cream business.
“This location is just so crazy good I couldn’t pass it up,” he said of the Centre Avenue location. “It’s a spectacular spot for us.”
Bruster’s started in 1989 in Bridgewater in Beaver County. Now, the business, still based in Beaver, has almost 200 locations nationwide.
McWreath said mentoring is a big part of his job, as teenagers ages 16, 17 and 18 years old tend to work there.
“When you own one of these, you get a chance to spend a lot of time with teenagers” during their formative years, he said. “I personally don’t have any kids, but I had no idea what I was getting into in terms of the relationships I have with these young adults.”
He said he was only willing to open a second location if it was close enough to the Squirrel Hill one so that many of his employees could also work in the second one.
“The store in Squirrel Hill has become such a popular place,” McWreath said. “It’s really flourished.”
A new concept
McWreath said the Centre Avenue location will feature a freestanding Bruster’s inside the building, which has 22-foot-high ceilings.
The new location will have dual garage doors with open air alongside the indoor ordering experience, and dual exterior patios that are able to seat 50-75 people outside the building.
Since the new Bruster’s will be in a plaza, there are over 50 free parking spaces for customers, McWreath said.
“It really is a cool buildout for us,” he said.
Previously, the Centre Avenue building housed an Emiliano’s Mexican Restaurant.
Just like the Squirrel Hill Bruster’s, the new location will be fully kosher, and there will be around 45-50 ice cream flavors available daily that are made in store.
Aside from typical ice cream, customers can order sundaes and milkshakes as well. There are lactose-free options available that are made with oat milk, McWreath said.
“We have a very short shelf life on all of our ice cream — we make it in small batches,” he said. “If it doesn’t sell, we throw it away.”
Megan Swift is a TribLive reporter covering trending news in Western Pennsylvania. A Murrysville native, she joined the Trib full time in 2023 after serving as editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian at Penn State. She previously worked as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the Trib for three summers. She can be reached at mswift@triblive.com.
