From empty building to community ice cream shop: See the renewal at this spot near Tower
Jasmin Guzman draws a happy face with a couple of Oreos and chocolate syrup.
It’s the first step in what will be a rolled ice cream dish called “el monstro de galleta,” (Spanish for cookie monster). The ingredients are chopped and rolled on a freezing metal slab with an ice cream base until they transform into a dish of ice cream, topped with whip cream and chocolate syrup.
It’s a little sign that this new ice cream shop, Let’s Roll Fresno, on Olive Avenue at the edge of the Tower District, is something different than your typical ice cream shop.
The shop opened to the public with regular hours after its grand opening last weekend, though its owners have been working on the building and holding outdoor pop-up events all year.
Behind the business are a couple of 25-year-olds who met on graduation day at Fresno State three years ago and fell in love. They’ve been busy transforming an empty building that was surrounded by dirt and dead grass into a cozy ice cream shop with a large patio they hope will be a place for community events.
“All the rolled ice cream places are in north Fresno, so we wanted something for this side of town,” said Tony Quezada, half of the couple who owns the shop.
All kinds of ice cream are on the menu, including some with a Mexican influence (like the horchata roll ice cream) and some without (like the one with Nutella and Ferraro Rocher chocolates).
The business also serves crepes, smoothies and coffee.
Let’s Roll Fresno
It’s a spot many Fresnans may remember as the former Miller-Clark Landscape & Nursery Co. (whose owners later bought Gazebo Gardens). Over the years it’s been a thrift shop, a vegetable market, a pet grooming place and a brewery that never quite happened.
A block east of Fruit Avenue at the corner of Vagedes Avenue, it was empty when Guzman and Quezada took over.
“This was just an empty space,” Quezada said. “It was nothing but dirt and old weeds.”
They spent the last year working on it, while doing pop-up events at Art Hop and outdoors at the shop to keep money coming in.
They’re on a tight budget, so had to get creative. They bought a section of artificial turf that used to be an old high school soccer field, for example. It cost them $500 instead of the thousands it would have cost new, Quezada said.
Guzman’s dad and brother laid the cement outdoors that occasionally gets used as a dance floor. Her grandfather turned recycled wood pallets into tables. Picnic tables were purchased at a discount from an online marketplace.
Her uncle, artist Mauro Carrera, painted the clouds and blue sky on the shop’s ceiling. He also did the rainbow wall with their logo featuring the Fresno skyline.
“We just had a vision,” Guzman said. “We just worked with what we had and got really creative.”
Outdoor events
Outdoors, in back is a big heart made from bricks, filled with white rocks, with string lights hung overhead.
They hope the space will be used for events like birthday parties, work events or community fundraisers. They’ve already hosted several vendor fairs in the outdoor space.
Last November, they hosted a fundraiser for the family of Jose Rivera, a street food vendor selling elote (corn), who was gunned down while on the job.
It’s the first business for Guzman and Quezada, who met when they sat next to each other during their 2018 graduation from Fresno State. She was getting her bachelor’s degree in accounting, his was in history.
They became friends, then a couple, then business partners after trying rolled ice cream during a trip to Mexico City. Both grew up in the area, she in Calwa and he in Mendota.
“We’re very thankful for a community that supports two young entrepreneurs,” she said.
Details: Let’s Roll Fresno is at 403 W. Olive Ave. Follow them on Instagram or Facebook. Hours: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. 559-930-1697.
This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 8:05 AM.
