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Author Mitch Albom Opening Detroit Water Ice Factory

Mitch Albom
Author Mitch Albom (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

DETROIT (AP) - Best-selling author Mitch Albom is using a sweet, cool treat from his childhood to help benefit Detroit.

The Detroit Water Ice Factory opens Tuesday in downtown Detroit. The shop, which is set up to look like an old-fashioned ice cream parlor, will sell water ice. The Detroit Free Press columnist describes the treat as "sort of like Italian ice," but with different consistency and flavors.

Albom tells the newspaper proceeds will go back into the enterprise and support his charity, S.A.Y. Detroit.

He says he got the owners of Primo Water Ice in New Jersey, where Albom grew up, to share their recipes. Albom says Dan Gilbert's Bedrock Real Estate Services set him up with the shop and he hopes that water ice catches on as a Motor City treat.

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