This ice-cream purveyor has put happy, messy smiles on Angelenos' faces since 1919.

Family-owned and -operated for three generations, Fosselman's was born when Christian Anthony Fosselman, a soft-drink man by trade, tasted the new-fangled delicacy called ice cream at a bottler's convention in Toronto and decided to somehow incorporate the treat into his existing business. Although refrigeration was the biggest obstacle to making ice cream at the turn of the century, the snowy winters in his native Iowa eased the process. When commercial refrigeration took off, Fosselman picked up his family (and his ice cream) and headed to California in 1924. It was here, in Pasadena, that he began selling his scream-worthy dairy products. The current plant and retail shop opened in Alhambra in 1941. Today almost 70 different kinds of ice cream, sorbet, sherbet and frozen yogurt can be found in the shop, and many area restaurants offer Fosselman's on their dessert menus. The history adds something special to sitting at the glass counter, tasting a sample of green tea or coconut-pineapple ice cream and walking away with a couple scoops of Dutch chocolate or mocha almond fudge. —Lesley Balla