Galata's ice cream master, Erkan Gozal, specializes in the "ice cream show," flipping and swapping cones, toying with the customers and adding a sense of whimsy to the Long Beach scoop shop.

The ice cream flips, twists and floats just out of reach, attached to one end of a long silver scooping staff being controlled by a professional trickster on the other side of the counter. The second ...