I happened to see Miko’s Italian Ice out of the corner of my eye.
We were driving home from an audition on the north side of Chicago when the bright yellow color of the wall and windows grabbed my attention. Parking tends to be non-existent when I’m actively searching for a spot along Damen Avenue. But on this particularly hot day in the city, there were a couple of spots available (hooray!) so I quickly snagged one of them. Of course, parking is rarely free in Chicago, but this space was in a zone that’s inexpensive. I used my ParkChicago app and we were good to go!
The spontaneity of getting Italian Ice added extra fun to our ride home.
The girls got out of the car and onto the hot sidewalk without a single complaint! Italian ice will do that, I suspect. We walked down the handful of steps from street-level to approach the walk-up window. It was then I realized there wasn’t an inside for the customers. But we happened to arrive at just the right time. There were a couple of seats available: one plastic kid-sized chair and one plastic adult-sized chair. More on that in a moment…
The flavors all sounded so refreshing in the 92 degree heat.
I think the three of us were a bit overwhelmed with the options available to us. Because I’m working on cutting down on sugar I decided to get an iced coffee (without sugar) and forego the Italian Ice…moral of that story…just order the Italian Ice for the love of all things holy. My coffee wasn’t the best coffee I’ve ever had. In fact I couldn’t even finish it. However, the main reason I pulled over in the first place, to get Italian Ice, was completely justified. Miko’s Italian Ice was the BEST Italian Ice the girls ever had!
The girls decided to each have a small strawberry Italian Ice.
There’s a small seating area near the walk-up window as well as a bench placed at street-level.
I ended up standing while the girls sat on the two chairs available. As you can see, it’s not fancy. But that’s perfectly fine when you’re eating such a cold, tasty snack on a hot day. You can see where the sidewalk and Damen Avenue are directly behind the girls in this picture:
The charm of Miko’s Italian Ice matches the deliciousness of its taste.
Here’s a different angle of the seating area next to the walk-up window. These two green chairs, plus the two plastic chairs the girls sat in means there’s NOT a lot of space to hang out. I suspect this neighborhood spot is a go-to for the city-dwellers living nearby, so they can just grab an Italian Ice and walk home.
We were richly rewarded for this spontaneous visit to Miko’s Italian Ice. According to Mo the taste was, “sweet, light and full of delight.” Gigi enjoyed the fact it was “lighter than ice cream.” They both decided on our next visit they’d take advantage of the “try a combo” option. They weren’t pleased with the fact that they didn’t ask for two flavors this time around. However as the sign at the window says:
Check out Miko’s Italian Ice for the flavors and the vibe of Chicago in the summer!
We visited 1846 N. Damen Avenue, but there are multiple locations. For more information visit https://www.mikositalianice.com/
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