Hicksville Focus: Hicksville Sweet Shop satisfies

Six days a week, Hicksville’s Betty Brown dines at one of the hamlet’s oldest businesses.

The 83-year-old and a group from St. Ignatius Loyola Parish go to the Hicksville Sweet Shop most mornings after Mass, and Brown typically returns midafternoon for supper. That has been her routine for most of the 60 years she has lived in Hicksville, and she is sticking to it.

“It’s like being with family. I hope they never close,” said Brown, who does not rate herself as a very good cook, another reason she eats there so frequently. “I don’t know where I’d go to eat. I’d have to cook!”

The restaurant opened in 1925 as an ice cream bar. Originally on the corner of West Marie Street and South Broadway, it moved to a bigger location a few buildings north on South Broadway a few years later. Today it stands at 75 Broadway, across the street from its second location. When Broadway was widened in 1961, the original building and many others were torn down.

In 1974 the business was purchased by Philip Zouros, 63, who immigrated to the United States from Greece in 1968 and has lived in Hicksville since. Ice cream chains and candy stores competed with the diner, so Zouros added breakfast, lunch and dinner to the menu to keep the business going.

Today the Hicksville Sweet Shop tries to cater to every customer that comes through its door, serving Irish, Italian and German-style foods among others. Zouros’ wife, Evmorfia, a Greek-trained dessert chef, makes all of the ice cream and syrups for the shop. Many customers top off their meals with three scoops of the restaurant’s homemade chocolate ice cream or an ice cream float.

Phiip Zouros said his customers are the reason he's stuck around, adding that the economy would have put him out of business 10 years ago, but he owns the building and doesn’t pay rent.

“I have a lot of nice people. You have Irish, Italian, Germans. You know, a mix. I have different customers every day and some are the same. I like that.”

On Tuesday the ice cream bar was home to a rite of passage between a regular and a newbie. Jerry Marlow, 61, a Hicksvillian of two years, sipped on his monthly vanilla egg cream while grandson Jack Marlow, 9, of East Northport, had his first root beer float.

“It’s like a touch of the old neighborhood,” Marlow said of the Hicksville Sweet Shop, referring to 1950s neighborhoods in general.

Jack then chimed in: “It’s old, but it’s pretty cool.”

This week, for the second installment of our “Town Focus” series, community journalist T.C. McCarthy is reporting from the hamlet of Hicksville. Have a suggestion about someone he should meet or a place he should visit? We want to hear from you about how to get the full Hicksville experience. Reach out through Twitter, email or in the comments below.