Some customers who go to Uncle Louie G on Nassau Street might be offered a spoon with their Italian ice, but some might not.
To eat Italian ice the right way—the Brooklyn way—you eat it right from the cup, says John Guida, who in June opened his second Uncle Louie G (“Luigi”) franchise on Nassau Street between Labyrinth Books and Princeton Sports Bar and Grill.
He thought Princetonians would adapt, but by August, he and his staff had stopped trying to convince locals to forgo utensils and slurp straight from the container.
“If people say, ‘Oh, we’ve been to Uncle Louie G’s in Brooklyn,’ then we don’t give them spoons,” said server Amy Rowe, of South Brunswick, who was manning the counter alongside Olivia Ray, a Princeton resident, one sunny summer day last month.
Otherwise, customers get their lime, mango, rainbow and other flavors of icy treats with spoons firmly planted. Guida said if that’s how customers want it, he’s happy to go along.
Princeton’s residents and tourists have also shown Guida a trick or two about how one can enjoy one of his more than 40 flavors. He said he’d never heard of anyone asking for Italian ice in a cone before he opened up in Princeton—not at the original Uncle Louie G.’s in Brooklyn, and not at his other franchise on Staten Island.
Guida had never been to Princeton before last year when he was in town to visit a friend, who was the contractor for D’Angelo’s Italian Market. He said he fell for the town immediately.
“I like the closeness,” he said. “I walk around, I see everybody knows each other. I’ve made a lot of friends already,” he said.
Guida knows well that Princeton is a hotbed of cold treats, with The Bent Spoon, Thomas Sweet, Halo Pub and Twist already offering ice cream and frozen yogurt to area snackers.
Uncle Louie G does offer some 30 varieties of ice cream, which Guida says are popular. But the Italian ice is one thing that he thinks sets him apart from the competition. He also likes his location best among the group.
“I’m not saying ours is better than theirs or theirs is better than ours,” he said. “It’s just different. I really think [Princeton] can warrant four or five different places. There’s lots of tastes. It’s different for everybody.”
Comparing Uncle Louie G Italian ice to that made at Rita’s, a well-known water ice purveyor in the area, Guida said Rita’s version of the treat is slushier.
“We have more of a body to it,” he said.
All his products are made from scratch in New York City and shipped to Princeton once a week, he said. Guida said they use real fruit in the Italian ices, and said they keep calorie counts low in the ices by relying on the fruits’ natural sugars.
Nonfruit ices, such as chocolate mousse, are made with skim milk, and are almost like gelati, he said.
Uncle Louie G is a seasonal business, but Guida plans to remain open through at least November. If fall traffic is good at the store, he will consider staying open for December, when Uncle Louie G breaks out seasonal flavors like candy cane.
Uncle Louie G is located at 124 Nassau St. in Princeton. On the Web: unclelouiegee.com.
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