Over the past six decades, the Lemon Ice King of Corona has become an internationally recognized symbol of Queens, on par with Mr. Met and the Unisphere. The old-school Italian ice shop now pops up in tourist guides around the world, but lines snaked around the corner long before it was featured on the (other) King of Queens. It’s the taste, not the hype, that’s been bringing locals back for all these years.

Not to be mistaken for shaved ice, and without the dairy products that make gelato or sherbet, Italian ice from the Lemon Ice King—made with water, sugar, chunks of fruit and other all-natural flavors—is in a category all its own. Peter Benfaremo founded the shop in 1945, with a menu that was a bit limited: pineapple and, naturally, lemon. Sixty-five years later, it’s run by former employees Vincent Barbaccia and Mike Zampino, purveyors of more than 35 flavors, ranging from almond to watermelon.

Stepping into the giant walk-in freezer, Barbaccia deftly maneuvers his chunky work boots through dozens of containers: gallons upon gallons of freshly squeezed juice. “Back when the business first started, they didn’t have modern-day refrigeration,” Barbaccia points out. “They would use salt and ice in a big barrel.”

The small garage-turned-factory adjacent to the storefront also houses a giant juicer, where oranges, lemons and other, more exotic fruits are pulverized, extracting their sweet nectar. The juices are then combined with water, sugar and a host of top-secret ingredients in a large metal mixer. After a half-hour of mixing, each clandestine concoction is left to cure for a day before it is ready to be scooped into a never-ending stream of paper cups. It’s a process that keeps the cousins working 12-hour shifts in the peak days of summer.

“This was my first job, and I never really left,” Zampino muses. He and Barbaccia, Lemon Ice King customers for many years, moved behind the counter as teenagers in 1986. Cousins and good friends, they spent the tail end of their teen years in the store and the production factory, learning “Uncle” Peter’s tricks of the trade.

“He taught us everything,” says Zampino. “He was as much a family member as he was a boss.” The cousins took over the shop in 1993, though Benfaremo maintained a strong presence long after that. With a home upstairs from the store he created, he remained a familiar face until he passed away in March of 2008.

Over the course of his life, for all the change Benfaremo saw in his hood, quite a bit remained the same. Colombian bakeries and 7-Elevens may stand in place of Italian restaurants and delis, but Mario Cutrone (who remembers Benfaremo humbly explaining to family back in the Old Country that he “sells water” for a living) still runs an old-school Italian dry cleaner across the street. Hispanic and Asian immigrants may be Corona’s growth demographic, but bocce matches still draw crowds in nearby “Spaghetti Park” (aka William Moore Park). Even the summer help seems straight out of a coming-of-age movie set in the ’50s: good-natured local kids man the counters for a few sweet summers before moving on with their lives. “We’re a stepping stone for a lot of these kids,” says Zampino, a note of pride apparent in his tone. “They learn about hard work here, then they bring that to their real careers.”

The summer workers mostly handle the front of the house, while Zampino and Barbaccia run the production center. Much of the cousins’ time is spent creating new flavors, while trying to keep up with demand for what they already serve.

“We adjust to the flavor of the neighborhood,” says Barbaccia as he scoops an order for his favorite peanut butter ice. “It’s not just an Italian neighborhood anymore; it’s all-inclusive.”

But while tropical flavors like coconut and mango may be popular among the shop’s many Latin customers, good old lemon ice, tart and sweet and brimming with little pieces of real lemon, is still the top seller. This year’s new flavor is strawberry-banana, a product of customer demand and tireless tinkering in the back room. As for the future, Zampino won’t make any promises, but don’t be surprised if you see passion fruit pop up on the menu. “We like to keep ’em guessing,” he says.

Edible Queens blogger Joe DiStefano offers his top tips on the borough’s tastiest iced treats in his series Queens on Ice.

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