For generations of New Yorkers, it has been the poor man's taste of summer. It is a frozen concoction that comes in a crayon-box assortment of flavors served in a pleated paper cup, and it costs about $1. It is Italian ice, of course. The kind made for three decades by Marino's Real Italian Ices, the largest purveyor of the ices in the metropolitan region.

In an era when nearly every corner deli carries a line of designer sorbets, Marino's continues to prosper, a testament to the eternal power of pushcart cuisine. But these days, Marino's ices are almost as likely to be sold by a Midwestern supermarket as by a midtown street vendor.

The ingredients are trucked to the brown brick factory at 129-10 91st Avenue, mixed with water and fed through a series of frost-covered pipes to form a slurry. The compound is pumped into containers and left to harden overnight.

The company's robust 82-year-old founder, Marinos Vourderis, is about as Italian as Zorba the Greek. But what Mr. Vourderis, who was born near Athens and who lives in Jamaica Estates, lacks in ethnic pedigree he makes up for in passion. When not surveying the scene from a cramped office, he can be found on the assembly line, repairing a stalled a machine that threatens to deprive the city of its chocolate ice.