I've never had Italian ice, and I don't know what to expect.
But I'm pretty excited that my first time
is at the Lemon Ice King of Corona,
the premier location for Italian Ice.
They quite possibly introduced Italian ice to America
when it opened 70 years ago.
What's also cool is that it's run
by some real Italian dudes from the neighborhood.
Isaac. Isaac, how you doing?
Mike, co-owner of The Lemon Ice King.
All right. So The Lemon Ice King of Corona.
That's us. That's us.
We squeeze out our own lemons to make the lemon ice.
Would you like to try one? Yes, please. Yeah.
I'm going to start you off with a lemon.
So what is Italian ice, essentially?
Italian ice is a frozen dessert, all water-based ice,
no dairy.
Just like this? No spoon? I don't need to --
No spoon, the old-fashioned way.
All right.
Is this how it... Wow.
I think this is the actual first time
that I've ever had Italian ice, and it's really good.
I can tell that you guys are
fully doing the lemons yourself here.
100% natural.
Where am I right now? Tell me about Corona.
You're in Corona Queens, Queens, New York,
and I grew up in this neighborhood.
I wouldn't call it a tough neighborhood
but I won't call it a weak neighborhood either.
[ Laughs ] All right. It's closely-knit.
Everybody knew each other when I grew up.
Here's my partner, Vinny. Hey. How's it going.
-Vinny, that's Isaac. -What's up? How you doing?
-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
Isaac: You guys got into business together?
Yeah. We bought the business together.
That was about 24 years ago.
24, 25 years, from the Benfaremo family.
Nicola Benfaremo started it in 1944, and his son Pete,
who became the King himself, when he got out of the service,
he took it to the next level.
All of his customers were calling him
the Lemon Ice King, and the name stuck.
Isaac: It sounds like you guys
were some of the founders of this style.
Pete's father, his name was Nicola.
He's the one that he really started, started
because next door where the garage is now
used to be a storefront.
So that's where Pete's father started making ice,
and he did it the old-fashioned way.
Hand-churning it? Hand-churning it.
Yeah. And then adding the flavor,
you know, lemon and sugar to it or whatever,
and making the first cups of Italian ices.
You grew up around here, then?
Yeah. I grew up here.
90% Italian growing up. That was the thing.
People, they were right off the boat.
My parents were right off the boat.
I was born in Sicily. We were all born in Sicily.
Oh, you were born in Sicily. Okay.
I was born in Sicily, yes. So me, my brother, and my sister.
You grew up -- You worked here a lot of times before.
As kids, we were helpers.
You might not say it, but I will for you.
You guys created Italian ice. There you go. There you go.
First of all, nobody else is taking credit for it
so we will take the credit for it.
There you go. Someone's got to do it.
That's it.
Actually would love to try another flavor
if you have another recommendation.
Um, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to get a menu for you.
I'm going to make you choose one.
Okay. Cool.
Um, let me try the watermelon, please.
So, is your customer base primarily Italians,
or are you getting everybody from the neighborhood,
all walks of life? We have all walks of life.
Yeah. Yeah.
We have -- We get people come and say,
"Oh, my grandfather used to take me here, or my father."
Puts a smile on my face.
I'm seeing people lined out the door.
Should you want any help, I can help you out.
Yes. Yes. How you doing, sir? [ Laughs ]
Can I have a super chocolate...
Okay. ...a super peanut butter,
and what are you getting?
-Mango. -And super mango.
You guys literally have the best ices in the world.
I come all the way from Suffolk County for you.
Do you? How far away is that?
Oh, about 60 miles.
60 miles? Come far and wide.
Yep.
I came all the way from San Francisco.
Man. Does everyone have their finishing touch?
Everyone does it differently.
You'll adapt to one skill once you get used to it.
All right. Who is this for?
-That's peanut butter, right? -Yeah.
-That's me. -All right. Bam.
Damn, you guys are a lot faster than me. 00:04:04.369,00:00:00.000 [ Laughs ]