Skip the Ice Cream This Summer and Try Rita's Italian Ice

Ed Stradling opens the window of Rita's to get ready to serve a customer.

Melissa Troutman of Palmer Township asks for a quart of root beer and a quart of cotton candy Italian ice.

"And give me a quart of Smores," she adds.

Troutman is a regular at the Sullivan Trail establishment, which Stradling has owned for the past 12 years.

"I come here once a week," she said. "But since my daughter just got her tonsils out, I've been here every two days. Root Beer is her favorite."

For Stradling, this brings a smile to his face. After all, Rita's mission statement will make anyone smile: "Ice, Custard and Happiness = Rita's."

It's an easy statement to follow when you're offering patrons Italian Ice flavors such as Mango, Cherry, Root Beer, Fudge Brownie, Wild Black Cherry, Cookies and Cream, Swedish Fish, Cantaloupe, Pineapple, Green Apple, Georgia Peach, Passion Fruit, Strawberry Margarita and even Butterscotch krimpets, about 30 flavors in all.
The flavors are mixed in a back room which contains gallons of various sweet treats.

Stradling is working the stand during lunch hour and the crowd is consistent with people ordering a healthy dose of Italian ices and ice cream. He'll hold down the fort until some of the 12-to-15 teenagers -- high schoolers and college students -- come in to work their shifts.
He wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Rita's is a ritual of spring and summer. And it's a business that benefits from this wonderful warm weather.

That's evident by the amount of ices and ice cream Stradling goes through in any given week at his shop, which opened on the first weekend of spring and will close sometime in mid-to-late September.

"Spring is always the best time," said Stradling. "If we have good weather, we're good from April through June. July is melon month. But things will start to slow down now, just a little bit, when we get a cool or rainy day or when people go on vacation."

Hard to tell from the customer traffic. (Rita's is open from noon to 10 p.m. During the summer and from noon to 9 p.m. during the spring and fall.)

Barbara Klessit shows up from her job at Lafayette College to get some ices for her colleagues. She places five orders. So how much does she love Rita's on a scale from 1 to 10?

"I'd say it's a 12," she exclaims.

That brings another smile to Stradling's face. He goes through 12 to 15 buckets of ices and maybe 75 gallons of ice cream each week.
Now that's a lot of smiles.