Eddie’s Sweet Shop Recognized As An NYC Institution

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A beloved Forest Hills ice cream parlor was recognized as a New York City institution that's "defined cool for decades," according to a new report.

Eddie's Sweet Shop, an ice cream shop that's been at 105-29 Metropolitan Avenue since the 1960s, was featured in the New York Times Style Magazine's most recent 212 column, where writer Reggie Nadelson profiles the city's iconic establishments.

Nadelson heralded Eddie's for its bygone era malts, shakes, sundaes, and interior decor — all of which has "remained pretty much unchanged since Giuseppe Citrano, an immigrant from Southern Italy, bought [the store] in 1968," she writes.

Among the parlor's "luscious and profound" frozen confections Nadelson most recommends Eddie's classic egg seltzer ("the kind with just a dash of seltzer added to the milk and syrup"), as well as the shop's coffee ice cream.

"Like everything else here, from the syrups to the whipped cream, it’s made on the premises, and it has a deep, subtle flavor: creamy but not overly rich, sweet but without that strange aftertaste caused by too much sugar," she writes of the coffee ice cream.

Interwoven into the description of Eddie's confections is the story of the Citrano family, four generations of whom have worked at the shop.

Vito Citrano, the current owner who took Eddie's over from his father, Giuseppe, said that he worked at the shop alongside his father and grandfather starting at age 12. While Vito had a short stint in finance after college he soon came back to the family business. Now, his sons Brandon and Joseph can be found at the shop too, making ice cream and toppings or manning the counter.

While Nadelson makes it clear that little has changed at Eddie's over the years, one of the shop's age-old traditions actually changed last month: customers can no longer eat at Eddie's marble countertop or wooden booths, since the shop went takeout only after the city's indoor vaccine mandate went into effect.

This change elicited hundreds-of-comments-long social media threads from the shop's dedicated customer base, some of whom argued that Eddie's was robbing vaccinated customers of the chance to eat indoors and questioned why the parlor didn't set up outdoor dining. Others lauded the parlor's decision, seeing it as a stance against the city's vaccine mandate, Patch reported.

Short of saying that the change is "due to new mandates" and that everyone is otherwise "doing well," Eddie's declined to comment when Patch about its decision to only offer take out service.

Read the full T Magazine profile — "An Ice-Cream Parlor Where Time Stands Still" — here.

Related Article: 'New Mandates' Prompt Beloved Ice Cream Shop To Nix Indoor Dining