Beverage

Whether you’re in Florida or Los Angeles, you can get a little taste of Brooklyn under the blue-striped awning of Uncle Louie G Italian Ices & Ice Cream. Just look at the ice flavors: N.Y.P.D. Blue. F.D.N.Y Cherry. Coney Island Cotton Candy. Holi Canoli. Soprano Spumoni. 

Uncle Louie G began 20 years ago as “a hole in the wall” in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, says Dino Russo, owner and director of research and development. Russo took over when his brother, the company founder, retired. In just seven years, he grew Uncle Louie G from eight locations to more than 50. Hamilton Beach Commercial spoke with Russo to find out how he’s winning over customers from the East Coast to the West.

At Hamilton Beach Commercial, we build our blenders to last. And now, we may have a new record for the hardest-working HBC blender. At Doolies Coffee and Juice Bar in Sydney, a six-year-old HBH850 Summit recently clocked 138,000 cycles. That’s 63 drinks per day, on average, for six years. And it’s still going strong.

Here’s a look at how Doolies has been blending success for 20 years — plus a few surefire smoothie recipes from Down Under.

Italian water ice is having a moment. Once found mainly in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas, this sublime summer treat is becoming popular all over the country. Never had one? Try mango water ice swirled with vanilla custard. First, you taste the rich and velvety frozen custard; then, just when you think you can’t eat any more, your spoon breaks through to an icy oasis of fine-textured, flavored ice.

When Rob and Paulette Lamb, both Philadelphia natives, visited Richmond one blazing August, they noticed one big thing missing from this Southern city. “If we’re going to move here, there’s got to be water ice!” they joked. Then they realized they had found the perfect business opportunity. In 2005, they opened Ray’s Italian Water Ice, and now have two thriving Richmond locations. Here’s how they succeeded.

This month's Hamilton Beach® Commercial blog recap includes a familiar winner (you love your chocolate & Kahlua!) and some new posts for you to check out. If you see content you like, be sure to subscribe for regular updates from that category, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

We're introducing a new feature here on the Hamilton Beach® Commercial blog - each month we will bring you the recap of the most popular posts from the previous month. Just to be sure that you haven't missed anything.