Leaning over the counter with a list of offbeat ice cream names and flavors hanging on the wall behind her, Susan Hinz recalls a day when a small child wandered into Scoops on the Boulevard and peered into the glass counter that displayed gallons of colorful ice cream and said, “Before, I was too short, but I’m happy because now I can finally see the ice cream!”
 A rarity in today’s world of chain-operated ice cream shops, Scoops on the Boulevard is a one-of-a-kind ice cream parlor that operates alongside the main intersection of Brookline, a small community nestled within the city of Pittsburgh. Open since the late 1970s, the store prides itself on offering a unique blend of flavors and other treats for its customers. Formerly known as Boulevard Ice Cream, the parlor shut down briefly in the winter due to a switch in management, only to re-open early this spring with renovation well underway, which is expected to be completed early this summer.
 Hinz, who was born and raised in Brookline, has garnered a collection of stories about the customers she has seen walk in and out of the store for the past two decades she has worked there.
 “You see the kids’ faces, and they get really excited when they come into the store,” Hinz said. “There are customers here that came as children, and now they’re coming with their own children, thrilled that we still offer Superman ice cream.”
 Even though the store has experienced slow business due to the financial plunge the economy has taken, Hinz said customers have always been consistent and that the parlor draws in business from all over the areas in and surrounding Pittsburgh.
 “People have come in from Bethel Park for our ice cream,” Hinz said.
 Jenn Buzzatto is an out-of-towner from the Chartiers Valley area, but makes trips to Brookline for an ice cream cone at the shop while she visits the community library.
 “The new owner is awesome for keeping the Blue Man and Superman ice cream flavors,” Buzzatto said.
 Cotton candy, Superman and Blue Man are just some of the novelty flavors offered by Scoops on the Boulevard that have traditionally won the hearts and the business of long time customers.
 The parlor also offers cakes, ice cream bars and other tasty confections.
 “When you go to a chain-owned ice cream store, you can’t mix and match [the ice cream]. We make it more personalized to the customer by doing things like adding extra sprinkles and toppings,” Hinz said.
 Jessica Clark, the manager at the Brookline branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP), is not only a fan of the ice cream parlor, but said Scoops on the Boulevard, across the street from the library, was instrumental in keeping the staff at the Brookline CLP cool while the building’s broken heater caused the temperature to skyrocket.
 “It was 85 degrees in the library. It was 65 degrees outside. Our heat was running and running and running and wouldn’t turn off,” Clark said. “And every day, we watched the clock till 3 p.m. when the store opened, and then only one staff member would go over [to Scoops] with an order for the whole staff. And it saved us.”
 Clark also said she enjoys going to the store during her off hours and seeing patrons from the library while she is not on the job.
 “The kids look at me funny, like what is the librarian doing here? And I tell them that I don’t forget their names when I cross the street,” Clark said. “I love [the store]. The only thing I would hope for is that they would open earlier.”
 Liz Benz, a resident of Brookline and a regular patron of Brookline CLP, said she came running down the stairs of the library, excited to share the news with her friends when Scoops on the Boulevard re-opened. She said it also gave her some hope for Brookline, a town that has kept its head up but has experienced, like other neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, the downturn the economy has taken in recent years.
 “You worry about [Brookline] becoming more like other communities [in the city],” Benz said. “You worry about it getting dangerous. But it means something that the store is still open.”
 Clark agreed.
 “We knew that the store would re-open, but when owners say that they’re closing down, even temporarily, there’s still that fear when the lights go out and the door gets boarded up,” Clark said. “But when it re-opens, it really says something about your community – that it’s still here and that it’s still going strong.”