New Rochester ice cream shop with a Mexican twist to open Thursday
Aug. 15—ROCHESTER — Rochester ice cream and frozen treat fans will have new choices with a Mexican twist this week.
A
La Michoacana Purépecha
shop is slated to open Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, at 28 Ninth Street SE, according to co-owner Francisco Lopez. Its official grand opening celebration will follow over the weekend.
La Michoacana Purépecha
's menu has more than 50 flavors of fresh fruit popsicles called paletas and more than 30 flavors of hand-made ice cream as well as yogurt dishes, fruit cups and Mexican snacks.
Lopez co-owns the new Med City shop with his wife, María Lopez. While it took a little longer than they expected to transform the building that last housed 7 Mile Beauty, Lopez says their team of eight employees are ready to start serving up ice cream, paletas, aqua fresca drinks and more.
La Michoacana is a specific type of frozen treat shop that started in the Michoacán region and is wildly popular throughout Mexico.
It made its way to Minnesota in 2018, when a family from Michoacán launched La Michoacana Purépecha in Minneapolis. Purépecha refers to the indigenous people who live in Michoacán.
La Michoacana Purépecha quickly caught on and soon they added locations in the Mall of America and the Twin Cities Premium Outlet Mall in Eagan. They just opened a new shop in Albertville this summer.
Lopez said coming to Rochester made sense, because their customers kept requesting a shop here.
"We have a lot of customers from Rochester. After coming up to the Cities to try us, they just keep coming," said Lopez. "They keep asking, 'When are you going to open in Rochester?' So we decided to give it a try."
The Rochester location will feel familiar to anyone who has visited La Michoacana Purépecha in the Eagan Outlet Mall. However, it will have a much larger menu.
"So they (Eagan) are smaller and can only serve a portion of the menu," said Lopez."We're going to have three times more products in Rochester than Eagan has."
La Michoacana Purépecha makes all of its popsicles and ice cream with fresh fruit. To start with, the Rochester location will sell treats made in the Twin Cities and shipped down here. Lopez said if the location does well, they will add making the ice cream and popsicles to the Rochester site in the future.
Lopez added that finding a location in Rochester took a while.
In the end, Barb Phelps and Leigh Ann Peltoma of
Titan360 Commercial Real Estate
lined up a lease of the 4,000-square-foot Ninth Street building, after 7 Mile Beauty moved to the
Crossroads Shopping Center
. Mark Steege, also of Titan360, represented the building owner in the deal.
Jeff Kiger tracks business action in Rochester and southeastern Minnesota every day in "Heard on the Street." Send tips to
or via Twitter to
@whereskiger
. You can call him at 507-285-7798.
