By Brendan Browne
Most kids don’t know what an egg cream is, not to mention where to find one of the old-fashioned desserts.
Thanks to Eddie’s Sweet Shop some Forest Hills kids are an exception to that rule.
The ice cream parlor at 105-29 Metropolitan Ave. has been serving desserts for more than 80 years old and almost everything in it is original from its authentic soda fountain to its wood and metal counter to its cast iron ceiling.
“Older people come in with their grandchildren and they tell them, ‘I came here when I was your age,’” said Angelo Giangrande, the manager at Eddie’s. “It’s kind of cool.”
Joe Citrano, a Sicilian immigrant, bought Eddie’s 34 years ago and except for adding 18 new flavors of ice cream, he has not made many changes to the store or its service.
“It’s still the same. We run the place like it was 50 years ago and better,” said Citrano, who lives above the ice cream parlor.
Citrano and his son, Vito, spend several hours each week in the basement of Eddie’s making all the French ice cream, syrups, and whipped cream by hand and the homemade desserts are quite popular in the neighborhood, the owner said.
In the summer, the store even offers peach and blueberry ice cream that Citrano makes with ripe fruit. The desserts are generously proportioned and the prices are moderate.
Customers, many of whom have been going to the restaurant for years, shuttle in and out of Eddie’s all afternoon and evening until it closes at 11:30 p.m. and they are quickly served up any of the 24 flavors in old-fashioned ice cream dishes.
“It’s like the ice cream parlor I used to go to as a kid,” said Lillian Gobeil of Ridgewood, who enjoyed a milkshake with her grandson. “The trouble is they don’t have too many of these anymore.”
“I get inordinately excited when I get to come in here,” said Jennifer Hlinka of Maspeth, who drops in at Eddie’s every time she is in the neighborhood. “You can tell they put a lot of work into (the ice cream).”
The ice cream parlor is so highly regarded for its authentic atmosphere that is has been used to film quite a few commercials and even a movie. For example, Coca Cola used Eddie’s to make a 1968 television advertisement and the movie “Brighton Beach Memoirs” shot one scene in the store.
Giangrande said the actor Ray Romano named Eddie’s as one of his favorite places to eat in a magazine survey. The Queens native periodically brings his son in to taste the desserts he ate as a kid, Giangrande said.
Reach reporter Brendan Browne by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 155.
