take out
Ice Ice Baby
Not every parent considers Italian ices an absolute requirement for a teething tot with a dairy allergy, but that's how NYC ICY, a new East Village Italian-ice stand, got started. Dissatisfied with the goods available to their son, Noah, Jonathan and Suzie Leeds decided to get into the business themselves. Like most passionate single-product purveyors, Jonathan is tight-lipped about his methodology: All we could get out of him is that he learned his craft from "some very experienced gelato people, and some old Italian guy," and that he does "certain things differently than other people, but can't really say what." He will admit that he uses mostly natural ingredients in both his water and his cream ices ($1.50 for two scoops to $7 for a quart): freshly squeezed orange juice and Madagascar vanilla in his creamsicle, Callebaut cocoa in his chocolate-peanut butter, fresh-peach purée in his peach, and crystallized ginger and real apricots in his excellent apricot-ginger. So far, the number of giddy adults on line is easily outpacing the number of lactose-intolerant toddlers, but that may change once word spreads among the nursery schools.
NYC ICY
21 Avenue B
212-979-9877

in print
The New Zagat of the Wine World?
If the exceedingly democratic, user-friendly Andrea Immer's Wine Buying Guide for Everyone (Broadway; $12.95) reminds you of a certain identically sized, identically priced paperback restaurant guidebook, it's no accident. Immer -- Esquire columnist, French Culinary Institute wine dean, and recent James Beard-award winner -- would no doubt love to see her new book take its mass-market place next to the Zagat Survey on every bookshelf and checkout counter. To that end, she's pulled together a list of more than 400 top-selling wines around the country and invited her populist tasting panel of wine buyers, servers, and consumers to rate them by taste and value -- on a scale of 0 to 30, no less. But we find ourselves more interested in Immer's own opinions, particularly the letter grades she assigns based on the staying power of opened bottles ("Kitchen Fridge and Countertop Survivors") and her own personal recommendations for the "Top 50 Wines You're Not Drinking." After all, she's the expert.