Now Open: Joe's Italian Ice Brings (More) Philadelphia-Style "Water Ice" to Tempe

Sure, you've already had Rita's Italian Ice on Mill Avenue, but now Tempe-ites have a second spot dedicated to serving Philadelphia-style Italian Ice. Joe's Italian Ice opened at 2019 South McClintock Drive in mid-December, bringing a menu of more than 50 flavors of Italian ice to Tempe. This is Joe's...

By Lauren Saria

February 25, 2014

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Sure, you've already had Rita's Italian Ice on Mill Avenue, but now Tempe-ites have a second spot dedicated to serving Philadelphia-style Italian Ice. Joe's Italian Ice opened at 2019 South McClintock Drive in mid-December, bringing a menu of more than 50 flavors of Italian ice to Tempe.

This is Joe's first location in Arizona, and the company has two other stores in southern California.

The selection of Italian ice, made onsite throughout the day, changes daily, but in total, Joe's can make more than 50 flavors of Italian ice, including such unique creations as "Snozzberry," a mixture of lemon, apple, and blue raspberry, and "Black Beauty," which is supposed to taste like a grape SweetTart, according to one employee. These flavors are in addition to standard ones like lemon, lime, strawberry, and peach, of course.

But the signature offering at Joe's is the Joe Latti, a regular (or large) cup of your favorite flavor of Italian ice with layers of soft serve ice cream throughout and on top. We tried one with peach Italian ice. The combination makes a pretty much a perfect texture that's somewhere in between an slush and sorbet.

Joe's also offers soft serve and Dryer's ice cream in cones, cups, sundaes, shakes, and floats.

Eventually, they'll also open a drive-thru for Italian ice lovers on the go, but for now, you'll have to go inside.

Joe's Italian Ice 2019 South McClintock Drive, Tempe 480-907-7077 www.joesice.com

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