The story below is a preview from our July/August 2018 issue. For more, Subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition.
Photo By John Park
The dog days of summer are upon us. But fear not! From craft ice cream to frozen lemonade and custard cones to pup cups, Roanoke has lots of tasty options for staying cool.
There are times—not many, granted–when only the most well-worn cliché will do. In the case of Deb’s Frozen Lemonade, the old adage, “when life throws you lemons, make lemonade,” quite literally applies.
When she was only 16 years old, Debra Castelli graduated William Byrd High School and was off to college. This was not a good idea.
“I didn’t even like high school,” Castelli says smiling at the obviousness of it now.
But her father, Rudolpho Castelli—a first-generation American and career postal worker–had pinched and saved so his children could have the college education he never did. Fortunately, Rudy (Castelli’s nickname for her dad) was incredibly wise, and entrepreneurial besides. He took his daughter’s college money and invested it in opening a small Italian ice shop on Walnut Street in Vinton. At the age of 17, Debra Castelli was a business owner.
Though she was named part owner on paper, in reality, Castelli held none of the business-side responsibilities those early years. “People ask me all the time, ‘How’d you do this when you were 17?’ Well, I didn’t,” she says, matter of fact. “It was all my dad’s idea. He set it up and I started working it seven days a week.”
Soon after opening, the Castellis decided to run a truck through the neighborhoods of Vinton, selling their homemade Italian Ice. They bought a 1969 postal truck, cut a hole in one side, outfitted it with a bell and named her Beulah. They’d load Beulah up with frozen lemonade the same time every day and drive her through Vinton’s neighborhoods.
“The little kids were so fun,” smiles Castelli. “They didn’t know whether to run for the truck or for the money. They would just be spinning!”
She shows me, taking steps one way, then the other, circling around just like a hyper-excited child, laughing at her crystal clear, sweet memory of them.
Fifteen years after opening, the Castellis relocated Deb’s to Brambleton Avenue. They bought the old, run-down Lendy’s fast food joint and went to work. Hours of elbow grease and gallons of white paint later, Deb’s Frozen Lemonade reopened, their bright green sign proudly displaying a happy tilted lemon scripted with “Deb’s” on a tall pole out front. Unbeknownst to them, that very sign—or rather the logo it displayed–would later become the center of a heated controversy and attempted trademark lawsuit by Del’s Lemonade. In 2013, the hefty New England chain claimed the Castellis had stolen their logo. Thanks to Roanoke Times columnist, Dan Casey, and a personal trip by Castelli’s mother, Joyce, to look Del’s lawyers in the eye and tell them what’s what, Del’s surrendered their claim and left Deb’s alone.
When asked to share what makes her frozen lemonade so special (without giving away any family secrets, of course), she just smiles, shakes her head and says almost apologetically, “No.” She says she wasn’t even privy to the family recipe—brought through Ellis Island in 1918 with her Italian grandparents—until years after the store was opened. It is kept (more literal cliché lingo) under lock and key.
“When my dad passed, my mom got in the lock box and—I don’t know if he did this before he got sick or after—but there was this note with the recipe…” Castelli pauses to try and maintain her composure. “It said, ‘I love you, Dad.’”
Deb’s has added pretzels, a build-your-own hot dog station, cookies and, most recently, popcorn to her simple menu options. But really, it’s about the frozen lemonade. One slurp and all the nostalgia of county fairs on muggy summer days comes rushing through. Deb’s frozen lemonade is the best kind of reminder that truly, the best things in life are—no, not free—rather simple, delicious and some form of sweet.
After 41 years of operating Deb’s Frozen Lemonade, Castelli says she thinks about retirement, but also knows it’s what gets her out of bed every morning.
“I’ve never done anything else,” she says. “The kids from my decades past keep coming back. They come visit me, they invite me to their baby showers. I don’t have kids. Those are my kids. I love ‘em.”
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