Rita's Italian Ice

http://www.ritasice.com/index.htm

This is a chain of Italian Ice places that is absolutely terrific. The Italian ices are soft-serve and absolutely delicious! My personal favorite is passion fruit.

On the first day of spring, you can walk up to any Rita's ask for the Italian ice of your choice, and you get it absolutely free!

As soon as I saw an entry for Rita's my mouth began to salivate. I love Rita's. My favorite flavor is tropical punch. They rarely have the flavor. Last summer I had the Rita's close to my house call my phone on the days they made the tropical punch flavor and they were glad to do so. They called 3 times last summer. The other times I get the cherry flavor.

Rita's is very good - try their custard, yum! But...here on LI, there are a couple of "Uncle Louie G's" ice stands, and honestly, their ices are the best - they have a softer feel than Rita's, and seem to be a little less expensive (coupla dimes to a quarter maybe), and they have a great selection also. They make a "lime crime" or some silly name that is just great!

Rita's is one of the best. Mango water ice with custard is dreamy.

Ritas is great, to bad the close in the winter.

On Staten Island we have Ralph's. Yummy! They also close for the winter.

Now there are Ralph's franchises all over Long Island and NJ but I don't know if they're as good as the original.

http://www.ralphsices.com/locations.html

I actually own a Rita's. I found myself driving to one about 20 minutes from my house a few times a week. After a while I looked into opening one because I liked the products so much.
The custard is the stuff that got me hooked. Very thick and rich. People told me I'd get sick of the stuff once I had the store open, but that didn't happen.

They opened one in the town where I live just this past spring. I tried it because it advertised Italian ices. I was very disappointed. It did not offer antying resembling the Italian ices I grew up with.