Planet Northwest

TIP OF THE ICEBERG

If every ice cube in downtown Seattle had melted last night, folks would probably be wearing snorkels and masks just to read this.

And we're not even counting those musty cubes buried under the Dove Bars in your freezer. (That's probably a measly 8 pounds of half-moon cubes every 24 hours. Small change in the ice business.)

No, we're talking about the acres of shaved ice, piles of nuggets, cubes and eggcrate-shaped chunks used to keep margaritas frosty, oysters chilly and Diet Cokes tolerable.

A fast-food restaurant plans on about 3.5 pounds of ice per seat, a more upscale place uses closer to 5 pounds per seat. -------------------------------------------------- THE ICE PERSON COMETH

Cube czar Fred Stray of Eastside Ice Machines counts up more than 6 tons of ice forming today in one downtown hotel alone.

"I've sold 'em three 3,000-pound machines for banquets alone. (Each makes 3,000 pounds of ice in a 24-hour period.) "And there's six 600-pounders in the kitchen."

With 36 years in the biz ("Yep, started out following the ice truck . . ."), Stray is downright fond of the sound of tumbling ice. Asked who fills the trays in his house, he admits he's got that covered.

"I've got a little 200-pound machine . . . and I put a 600-pounder in the garage during the summer for the neighbors."

A career iceman's idea of roughing it? "Got a nice little 50-pound ice machine up at my cabin."

-------------------------- COLD REALISM

Kevin Roscoe's notion of a cool time is revving up his chainsaw and turning a 300-pound block of ice (about 10-by-20-by-40 inches) into slick art.

The award-winning Seattle ice sculptor likes to break away from the predictable wedding doves and leaping salmon. Sometimes he's naughty by request: Anatomically correct dudes for the canape table at bachelorette parties, a buxom mermaid rising from her shell for a Boeing executive's dinner party.

Most ambitious sculpture? Had to be the gladiator fighting a lion, carved out of an 8,000-pound block of natural Alaskan ice.

When he isn't filling orders, Roscoe and a couple of fellow icemen do "entertainment carving" for incredulous crowds. (Their Web site: http://www.icescuplture.com) ------------------------------------------------------- HOW DRY I AM

Not everyone in the ice business sells the wet stuff.

Like the folks at the Northwest's American Dry Ice who peddle the dry kind (carbon dioxide in solid form) or that gel stuff. (Reuseable gel is actually a powder that absorbs water like crazy - a mere tablespoon can suck up 3 cups of water; the one-time gel used for sports injuries is ammonium nitrate plus water.)

What's the matter, old-fashioned ice cubes aren't good enough for some people?

Exactly. Try using cubes for "ice blasting" (a construction alternative to sandblasting that uses dry-ice pellets) or staging "Phantom of the Opera" without the billowing clouds of fog made from dry ice.

And we don't even want to think about shipping fresh fish to market without gel. Yeech.

-------------------------------- ASK THE EXPERTS

Q: So just how cold is dry ice, anyway?

A: Dry ice is minus 109 degrees Fahrenheit. Compare that to ice cream, usually kept at 0 degrees, regular ice cubes, which freeze at 32 degrees and your home freezer, which is set at about 10 degrees. In other words: Very.

Source: Seattle dry-ice maven John Campbell, president of Air Gas Dry Ice Inc., who reckons that about a billion pounds of the stuff is sold each year in this country.

--------------------------- Kimberly B. Marlowe is a staff writer for The Seattle Times. You may e-mail this page at pacificnw@seatimes.com or snail mail: P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. Planet Northwest response line: 206-464-3337.