Mario DiPaola immigrated to Chicago from Italy's Abruzzo region. In 1954 he created Mario's Italian Lemonade that was an extension of a hobby to keep his son Mario Jr. out of trouble. The younger DiPaolo started at age six with an old-fashioned hand-crank machine on a cart outside the family’s general store, where he sold frozen lemonade for two cents. “We don’t call it ice,” DiPaolo explains. “It’s Italian lemonade. That’s just the name we’ve always stuck with.” Back then, a horse-drawn wagon delivered ice in hundred-pound blocks, and lemon juice was squeezed by hand before churning.
“My grandma bought me my first electric lemon squeezer with S&H Green Stamps,” says DiPaolo. “[She] taught me how to make change [by] playing Monopoly with real money. And she cheated!
Read the full story here: https://www.saveur.com/food/marios-italian-lemonade-chicago/
Picture courtesy of Mario's Italian Lemonade.