Summer starts to end in Chicago when Mario’s Italian Lemonade says it’s closing for the season. “I like closing on a nice hot day,” said Mario “Skip” DiPaolo, 77. He co-owns the iconic Italian ice stand in the historic Little Italy neighborhood with his wife and three children. “I want you to remember the last lemonade you had when it was hot outside.”
This year, the last day comes Sunday. DiPaolo likes to close around Sept. 15. That’s the date his father, Mario G. DiPaolo, died in 1984. Father and son started the business together around 1954.
