There's something in the water in Newark, and that something has made Nasto's ice cream sweet and delicious for 75 years.

Frank Nasto III, the third-generation owner of the Ironbound icon, doesn't know exactly what it is that makes the Newark water so perfect for ice cream and Italian ice, but he does know the quality of the water matters.

"The main ingredient in our lemon ice is water," Nasto says. "Newark has excellent water and it does make a big difference."

Nasto's will celebrate 75 years of turning that "excellent water" into excellent desserts with a party at its store on Saturday — including 1939 pricing on its ices and ice creams. But even as the company celebrates its history, Nasto's is also looking to the future. The company has plans to expand its Newark facility as well as its presence in New Jersey.

Nasto's store on Jefferson Street used to be a neighborhood tavern called Krueger's Brewery before Frank Nasto Sr., an Italian immigrant, bought it in 1939. With nine kids, there was always plenty of people to help run the shop. Nasto Sr. started out selling candy and making lemon ice before branching out to make other Italian desserts including spumoni, tortoni and tartufo.

The store was eventually taken over by Al and Frank Jr., the two oldest sons. Today Nasto's remains a family affair, with Frank Nasto III as president. His brother and father still work at the company, as do a few of his in-laws and his wife.

"This is the only job I've ever had," Nasto says. "I'm 44 now and I've been here ever since I can remember."

An image of Nasto's Old World Desserts from the 1960s.

The store has been based in Newark for its entire history — the cherry vanilla got name-checked in a 1950s flashback on "The Sopranos" — and Nasto says he has no plans to move it. But even if you've never been to Newark, the chances are good that you've eaten one of Nasto's homemade desserts. The company's ice cream, Italian ice and other treats are served at more than 700 restaurants across New Jersey.

All the desserts and ice cream are made on the premises, and Nasto isn't even sure how many flavors his store sells because the flavors are changed out so often. The newest flavors are sea salt caramel pretzel and avocado, but despite the wide variety of flavors, vanilla is still the store's most popular, he says.

Nasto gets ideas for new flavors from customer requests, as well as by reading the trade magazines and watching the Food Network to keep up with the latest food trends.

"Real popular right now is bacon. Everything nowadays is like bacon potato chips, bacon this, bacon that. So I've been playing with bacon ice cream," Nasto says. "I'm still experimenting."

Frank Nasto Jr. looks at old Nasto's menu signs -- "luscious" chocolate sundaes once sold for 35 cents.

If he does get the ingredients right now, he can only hope it becomes as popular as one of the store's more unique flavors: creamed corn ice cream. The neighborhood around Nasto's has a large Brazilian population and a few years ago, several people came in asking if the store sold creamed corn ice cream. Nasto had never heard of such a flavor, but he set to work experimenting with different ingredients until he got it right. Although he's gotten a lot of compliments on it, Nasto admits that creamed corn is a very polarizing flavor.

"People either love it or they hate it. There's no middle ground," he says. "I happen to love it."

Nasto estimates that his store makes thousands of gallons of ice cream a day during the peak months of May and June. To make all that ice cream, Nasto's has two mixers — one that holds 150 gallons of ice cream and one that holds 300 gallons. The ice cream is stored in Nasto's 10,000-square-foot freezer, which is kept at a cool minus-20 degrees.

But even the giant freezer isn't quite big enough to hold all the sweet treats Nasto's churns out on a regular basis. The company has to store some of its products at a nearby refrigerated warehouse, Nasto says, so the store has plans to quadruple the size of its current freezer. Nasto also wants to expand the company's retail business by opening additional satellite stores in western and southern Jersey and eventually franchising.

But right now Nasto's is focused on celebrating everything it has accomplished so far. The party on Saturday will feature activities for kids, a name-a-flavor contest and 1939 pricing on its ice cream and Italian ices. That means lemon ice and vanilla ice cream will only cost 5 cents. Nasto also wants to have a lemon-ice eating contest, though he thinks it will end up being a pretty short event.

"It's going to be tough because you're going to get a brain freeze," he says. "It's not going to be a lot. If you can eat a whole cup, you're probably going to be the champion."

It likely won't be the first or the last brain freeze someone has gotten from Nasto's Italian ice. But even though the company has been around for 75 years, Nasto says there's no big secret to the store's success.

"It's just you buy good ingredients, you put good stuff in, put a little TLC, a lot of hard work and long hours."

And a splash of Newark water.

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