A Mexican ice cream shop on the west side of St. Paul gets a major overhaul this week, with a new name, additional owners and plans for the future.
The former La Michoacana Pink Ice Cream, the store on Cesar Chavez and Ada streets is being rebranded as Le Fresuchii Neveria. Andrea Cruz and her husband, John Babcock, recently joined the store’s ownership group and are working to help the business stand out.
The store’s existing menu, which consists primarily of paletas — Mexican fruit-based popsicles — will remain familiar, Cruz said. The previous owner is still responsible for developing the flavors and making the palettes, although he may now have more time to experiment. As for Cruz and Babcock, their major innovation is the development of new molds to freeze the pallets into unique shapes.
The rebrand is the first priority, though, so we’ll have to wait a bit for creative popsicle designs and different flavors.
The new name is a play on la fresa, Spanish for strawberry, and Cruz hopes it will help them stand out. “La Michoacana” is a relatively common name for Mexican ice cream shops, despite the fact that in many cases each one is a completely independent business, Cruz said. Like La Michoacana Pink Ice Cream, for example, the store had no connection to other similarly named operations in the Twin Cities.
“We wanted to make it ring a little higher in our community,” Cruz said.
Le Fresuchii Neveria: 197 Cesar Chavez St.
