The Salem Insider

Insiders guide to food, entertainment & living in Salem Massachusetts for tourists and residents.

Ice – Custard – Happiness

By Mr. Salem on 4 Comments
Categories: business, restaurant

Rita’s Italian Ice
188 Essex Street
978.741.7482

As the new cool kid in town Rita’s serves up some frozen treats.

Rita's Italian Ice Salem

Rita's Italian Ice Salem

With the scooperbowl just happening and the ice cream wars heating up a new hat was thrown into the ring recently when franchise frozen ice water shop Rita’s Italian Ice opened up.  Thankfully for them their big opening was a couple weeks back when we still had some summer heat.

Their shop along the pedestrian mall on Essex Street, next to Witch City Ink and across from Pamplemousse is a colourful explosion of red, green and white. Commonly misconstrued as an ice cream shop Rita’s is a whole different ballgame.  They serve up frozen treats of Italian Ice which is a blend of ice and fresh fruits, Cream Ice, a cold creamy mix of goodies like bananas, cookies n’ cream and fudge brownies.  There are even frozen coffee drinks and blended mixes of Italian ice and cream ice.

Scooping Italian Ice

Scooping Italian Ice

I wouldn’t suggest this as a replacement for your Maria’s or Capt. Dusty runs but as a new pitfall along the road back to the gym.  For those of you still trying to watch you weight Rita’s offers some Sugar-Free Italian Ice that’s also Fat-Free, Cholesterol-Free and Trans-Fat Free so you can keep that beach figure you worked on so hard these past few months.

As a goodwill ambasador to the outside world, Rita’s mascot can be seen all over town drumming up business and good cheer, you can even be Mr. Ice Guy’s friend on myspace!

Atmosphere: C (for cartoonish)
Food: B (bonus points for being unique)
Service: C
Overall: B-

4 Responses

  1. KGW says:

    Great Place!!!! You have got to try the Mango Gelati it’s awesome!! All kinds of flavors to choose from.

  2. Christelle says:

    Rita’s is the best, our school sells this :)

  3. We cannot wait until March 12th 2010 when Rita’s reopens for the season and for those of you that did not grow up with Rita’s in PA or NJ… This is the best Ice ever. They have new flavors every year, we can’t wait to see what this year’s will be. They also kick off the season by giving out on The “First Day of Spring” FREE REGULAR SIZE ITALIAN ICE, Not just a sample. The line was out the door last year. We love our Rita’s!!!

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