GROVE CITY, Ohio — It's a moment Grove City native Mike Strawser and his family have been looking forward to for some time. 

They were in talks to buy a candy store in Columbus' Short North in 2019. But when the pandemic hit, that idea was placed on the back burner. 

But since then, Mike and his wife, Julie, established a food truck, called What the Float, specializing in just that—hand-dipped ice cream floats.

What You Need To Know

  • Recently, Mike, who spent 15 years in the banking industry, decided to open up his first storefront in downtown Grove City

  • It offers 120 flavors of craft soda pop, 50 flavors of ice cream and any candy you can think of, and customers have the chance to build their own

  • The Strawsers said they will continue to operate their food truck at festivals across central Ohio

 “We were at a music festival in Columbus, and it was very hot and there was nothing cold to drink, and we started thinking about how the floats would be kind of a cool thing, 'cause they have some weird names, and some gross sounding names and we thought a music festival would be a great place to sell that,” said Mike.

Recently, Mike, who spent 15 years in the banking industry, decided to open up his first storefront in downtown Grove City. 

The store that bears his name offers 120 flavors of craft soda pop, 50 flavors of ice cream and any candy you can think of, and customers have the chance to build their own float. 

It's a welcome site for Grove City residents.  

“Recently, we've seen a lot of places like this come in, as opposed to, like, services. We've seen a place where you can actually shop when you're just having a day out with your family. And with my growing family, I'm always glad to see more growth,” said Grove City resident Aaron Schlabach. 

For the Strawsers, they know ice cream, candy and pop all bring out the kid in everyone.

They're hopeful this new venture will be both enjoyable and rewarding. 

“We've had such a huge like outpouring of support so far. Really, we were overwhelmed and surprised by how many people already got behind us,” said Julie.

“They've put a lot of time and money into developing and bringing this us and so this downtown area is so awesome. There's so much foot traffic and that's why we knew we wanted to be in this place here,” said Mike. 

The Strawsers said they will continue to operate their food truck at festivals across central Ohio.

Strawser's Ice Cream, Pop & Candy Shop is located at 4026 Broadway in downtown Grove City.