The man in the Mister Softee truck stuck his head out the window and glared at the fellow in the white cap and black bow tie.

The guy in the bow tie grimaced back as he rang the bell on his Good Humor truck, whose bumper sat inches from Mister Softee’s.

“Ching ching ching.”

“This is open turf,” said Jose Martinez, 52, the Good Humor man, yanking at the bell.

Summer is more than a month away, but the ice cream wars have already begun. In neighborhoods across the city, skirmishes are breaking out over which franchise can sell its wares on which route. And the tension between the city’s purveyors of ice-cold treats can at times be thicker than a Chipwich.