LTHForum.com

I'm pretty sure even the chocolate at Mario's starts with lemon.

Have you tried the Galaretka Polish chocolates with the lemon jelly filling? They're my favorite inexpensive chocolates.

_________________
LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Hey! I apologized, Let it Go

After this long icy winter (which apparently is still going on!) I find myself longing for the summer kind of ice...Italian Ice. Knowing that my favorite's Mario's and Ferro's haven't opened shop yet, I did some digging and found that there's actually an Annette's location in the suburbs.

Annette's Italian Ice in Glenview opened on St. Patty's day so I stopped by a few days ago to settle my craving. While they don't have their full arrangement of flavors, they were well stocked with around 15 choices and my favorites Strawberry and Banana were ready to go.

There aren't many decent ice places in the northern suburbs (that I know of at least) so I figured I'd spread the word for those in the area interested in getting an early start to ice season.

While I find that the ice is good, I have to say, the prices seem high. A quart of ice to go was $10.

Annette's Italian Ice
3124 Glenview Road
Glenview, IL 60025
(847) 729-3990

Tonight, I stopped into Icebox on Broadway. A place that, particularly in the winter, when it is SoupBox exclusively, I avoid for their overpriced canned soups.

I was really pleasantly surprised at the ice. I had a medium combo of lemon and cherry. The cherry was especially good, packed with loads of fresh fruit. The lemon was refreshing with identifiable bits of lemon pulp. It didn't match Mario's. But, it made for a nice neighborhood stop.

I should note that the New York Deli at Clark and Wellington serves Anthony's Ice which is good in a norhside pinch too.

I live close to Icebox, and although I haven't been there yet this year, I've regularly visited over the years. If you're a first-time visitor, I'd offer a couple suggestions:

They make their ices from scratch using fresh fruits. Because the quality and ripeness of fruit can vary from day to day, take them up on their offer to give you a sample. If you try before you buy, you'll probably be much happier.

Sometimes you'll see a flavor where the ice looks "dry," and others will appear to be slushier. I'd usually recommend the slushier once. I find that the drier ices usually lack sufficient amounts of juice from the fruits, and they're not as tasty. If you're really tempted by one of the drier looking ices, make sure you sample it first!

After reading this thread I dragged the wife and kids down to Gina's on Roosevelt. My wife and I found it to be pretty nasty. She had raspberry and took one bite and said yuck and wouldn't eat the rest. I had lime which was terrible. So I ate her's which was better than mine. The little girl had cherry which she loved...but she is four years old. All the ices were way way way too sweet with zero tartness and no fruit flavor. I did pick out a raspberry seed out of it though.....I'll stick with the lemon ice at Johnnie's.

_________________
i used to milk cows

I live on the southside (near Oak Lawn) and for the life of me i cannot find any italian ice out here. We have the Firehouse Steak & Lemonade places, but that lemonade just does not cut it. anyone know of a place on the southside that sells Italian ice?

I just tried Miko's on Damen today. The guy who works there said that they've been in business 12 years, but this location is only open in the summertime. He said that besides lemon, mango and coconut were his most popular flavors. As I love coconut italian ice for its smooth, creamy texture, I decided to give theirs a try. Miko's has little bits of coconut shavings in theirs. Though it was tasty, I preferred Anthony's smooth texture with no shavings. Plus, I saw some strange yellow circles in my Italian ice from Miko's, but I ate it anyway. I got a sample of the banana chocolate chip flavor while I was there since I hadn't seen this flavor anywhere else. It was actually quite good! There was a nice balance of banana and chocolate, and it wasn't too sweet.

I love Annette's.

I don't think Annette's gets its due because of the Lincoln Park, Chad and Trixie-laden location; an area that doesn't exactly exude small, family-owned businesses. Plus, unlike Anthony's, it doesn't seem like Annette's sells their product to very many-if any-other vendors.

I hear Annette's has great ice cream, but I wouldn't know, since I am chemically-dependent on their Italian Ice between the months of May and September.

I find it best to avoid the tropical flavors and stick with classic, simple, single-fruit flavors.

Favorites include black cherry, lime, blueberry, and - the one flavor that always makes up at least half my order - grapefruit. It is such a great, tart, in-your-face grapefruit taste, incredibly refreshing on a summer afternoon.

How about a heatwave post? I'm doing an Italian ice roundup, well really I've been on one since my youth. I'm the kid that never wanted ice cream but rather Italian ice. I've been to them all, I live in LP, find myself near Taylor Street for "work" often and places like Zarlengo's in Da Heights are gems I seek out when near there. Here are my top 10 flavors of Italian Ice in Chicagoland.

1) Fruit Cocktail @ Mario's
2) Lemon @ Johnnie's Beef
3) Watermelon @ Tom & Wendee's
4) Apricot @ Zarlengo's
5) Pistachio @ Freddy's Pizza (Cicero)
6) Pear-Appple @ Annettes
7) Mango @ Deko's
8 ) Strawberry @ Gina's
9) Red Raspberry @ Tom & Wendee's
10) Peach @ Mario's

I know people on here loathe top ten lists but think of this list rather as "ten to flavors to try" These are my ten favorite and depending on which stand I'm at, I'm most likely getting one of these. I should say that it was hard not getting a 2nd one from Zarlengo's in the list, they have some really great ice and flavors you don't see everywhere, real fruit too of course. The fact that I live in LP doesn't sway the fact T&W has two, its ice has always been some of if not the best. You just gotta know which flavor route to go. Happy Heat Wave.

_________________
Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing

Well, I'm not loath to top ten lists. Love 'em, and find them very useful--especially as it's your top ten, not some ordained view of what the consensus top ten is (w/o actually polling the populous).

No Ice Box? but, if I made a ice list, I cannot imagine it would include much more than Freddy's chocolate and Mario's tutti frutti (best use of canned fruit cocktail ever!). So what do I know.

_________________
Think Yiddish, Dress British - Advice of Evil Ronnie to me.

The Local Beet's very big list of 2013 Farmer's Markets

I haven't been to the Icebox in years. I kind of forgot about it, going to check it out soon. I'm not all that big on chocolate hence the reason I think my love for ice cream isn't there, but people swear by the chocolate and toffee flavors at Tom & Wendee's. Whenever I'm there that's pretty much what everyone is ordering. Thanks for the Icebox reminder.

_________________
Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing

D'amato's (Grand) has the best lemon I've had in recent memory, less icy than Johnnie's, perhaps one mote too sweet, but magic smooth and clear lemon flavor.

I don't know where Monarca falls on the authentic Italian ice spectrum, but their lemon ice works for me; like Johnnie's, it includes those refreshing pieces of lemon peel, but is less sweet (which, for me, is a good thing).

Paleteria La Monarca
6955 N Clark St
(between Lunt Ave & Morse Ave)
Chicago, IL 60626