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Del’s Lemonade — Rhode Island’s State Intermezzo
Every state has its official "stuff"—a bird, flower, maybe even a fish. But Rhode Island is the only one with a state palate cleanser.
You know when you’re at a wedding and that little bowl of sorbet gets served sometime between the penne vodka and the Chilean sea bass? That’s basically Del’s Frozen Lemonade.
For over 75 years, that waxy yellow-and-green paper cup has been refreshing Rhode Islanders with its tart, slightly sweet frozen lemonade. And somewhere along the way, it just naturally became the reset between the lingering spice of a quahog stuffie and the first bite of an all-the-way wiener.
Think of it as the Ocean State’s wedding sorbet—without having to do the Macarena.
How it Started
In 1948, Angelo DeLucia opened a small stand in Cranston, RI, selling a frosty variation of his nonno’s nonno’s century-old lemon ice recipe from Naples, Italy. Angelo built a machine that produced a consistently snowy ice—thicker and with less syrup than the other Italian ices sold at that time.
In the ’50s, he expanded with a fleet of mobile lemonade trucks that predated Mister Softee by a few years. I can just imagine the two drag racing down Atwells Avenue for pink slips.
So what started out as a lemonade stand and a few trucks now has more than 24 locations throughout Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts—even one on the Boulevard in Sin City. Over the year, the menu has grown too, with fruity additions like watermelon, blueberry, grapefruit and blood orange joining the original.
But lemon is still the reason to stop. It lacks the cloyingly sweet, artificial flavor of some of its contemporaries, with a complexity you don’t usually expect out of a paper cup. It’s icy, tart and unmistakably fresh—so much so, you may even find yourself biting into a tiny piece of lemon peel. And if you don’t want to stand out as a foreigner, take some advice straight from Del’s website:
Sip from the cup. No straw needed.
Using one is a dead giveaway you’re not from Rhode Island.
The Most Interesting Lemonade in the World
As good as Del’s is straight from that waxy paper cup, there’s something about its tart lemon flavor that practically begs for a little alcohol. And eventually it happened.
In 2014, Del’s teamed up with Narragansett Brewery, another iconic Rhode Island brand, marrying its signature tartness with the famous lager to create the perfect lemony Shandy—weekends on the Cape have never been the same.
Whether it’s cooling you down on a hot day, resetting your palate or getting a little help from Narragansett, Del’s is about as quintessentially Rhode Island as it gets.
Just remember—lose the straw.
