Now out from the Idealab umbrella, Ice.com is in expansion mode, but with more modest ambitions.
"We would invest in ice cream and umbrellas for the British summer and your investment strategy needs to be the same thing," he says.
Ice bounced off the umbrella of Anibal Barrios, 51, a bakery employee, who reacted by walking a little faster.
In conjunction with the Back push button just below it, this wheel lets you operate all of the included programs with one hand, a feature you really appreciate when you're holding a cellphone, umbrella or ice cream cone in the other hand.
The next night he had a gift box delivered containing two ice-cube trays, an umbrella, a jar opener and other references to their date.
At the back there were vendors selling soft drinks and ring-shaped loaves of bread and, from a cart beneath a red umbrella, flavored ices.
Facilities are minimal – toilets, showers, a couple of cafes, an ice-cream van, umbrellas and deck chairs, a statue of the Virgin Mary – but that's all part of the charm.
Thousands of direct observations - not estimates - are taken daily to tell you if you should wear a coat, carry an umbrella, take your ice scraper, or most importantly, to brace for even more severe weather.
When out with him one night, she had variously mentioned her tiny ice-cube tray, her broken umbrella and her problem opening a jar of marinara sauce.
And it was pretty: a long-stemmed lime-green nasturtium leaf was a natural umbrella suspended above the ice.
