The Lemon Ice King of Corona
The Lemon Ice King of Corona
In 1946, Nicola Benfaremo started selling fruity Italian ices in
Corona. Soon thereafter, his son, Peter, took over the family
business. Today, the Lemon Ice King offers roughly 40 flavors of
the product -- including licorice, bubble gum, peanut butter and
four sugar-free items -- from a store that has a cult-like following
and even received an award of distinction from Zagat.
There’s a mini-tourism attraction across the street, where intense
bocce games are played at William F. Moore Park. Called
“Spaghetti Park” by locals, this public space has a clay-and-sand
bocce court with lighting that attracts players from all over the
city.
Inside scoop: In the opening credits for the television show The
King of Queens, the two main protagonists buy ices at the store.
Address: 52-02 108th Street, Corona,
www.thelemonicekingofcorona.com.
THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY THEATER
The OBIE- and Bessie-winning Chocolate Factory Theater is a
leading incubator for experimental performance. The 5,000-squarefoot
facility is home to work emphasizing multi-disciplinary
collaboration combining movement, music, video, and text to devise
a means of storytelling that is immediate, collage-like, highly visual,
and dependent on new technologies. When successful, the work is
not easily categorized as theater, dance, new music or video art and
is rather a thorough intermingling of these disciplines.
Inside scoop: The factory provides more than 100 visiting artists a
year with dedicated access to the space and technical equipment,
substantive creative residency periods, commissioning funds,
administrative support and a guaranteed artist fee.
Address: 5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City,
www.chocolatefactorytheater.org.
78 QUEENS IN YOUR POCKET • www.itsinqueens.com