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Lia’s Ices is the name of this beachy Windsor Terrace refreshment shack, but that’s only half the story. In addition to the Benfaremo ices, there’s also Ciao Bella gelato and sorbetto, and, best of all, mixed in among the smooth and creamy, a handful of notable gelato flavors like cassata, fichi, and zuppa Inglese, each distinguished by an asterisk. What do the asterisks indicate? “Oh, those are the ones we get from this old Italian guy,” explains the young scooper on duty one night. As it turns out, that old Italian guy is none other than erstwhile (and not that old, really) restaurateur Gino Cammarata, who, as ice-cream freaks know, is to gelato what Eric Ripert is to fish. Lia’s owner Frank Krug, you see, met Cammarata at the Alaska Sun tanning salon in Bensonhurst where Cammarata recently set up a makeshift gelati operation (tough economy!), liked what he saw, and enlisted his services. And who’s Lia? That would be Krug’s gelato-crazed niece. — Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite

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