PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2022

“Whatever I have available, I turn into ice cream,” said Rodriguez. “If you bring me a lemon cake, I’ll make lemon cake ice cream … I never hear anybody say, ‘I don’t like it.’ Palarte is open from noon to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday, with extended hours during community celebrations. Don’t be surprised to see a Palarte bicycle with freezer in towworking the Downtown area during street festivals, Tower Park events and summer concerts. It has been a long, long road for the 42-year-old Rodriquez, who all the while was working toward becoming a U.S. citizen, which she accomplished in 2021. Where exactly did she pick up this entrepreneurial spirit, and what has she learned along the way? “I got the business side frommy mom and dad,” Maria Delores Ortega and Cristobal Rodriguez, she said. And at every step of the way in that nearly 2,000 miles between La Soledad, Michoacán, Mexico and Peoria, Illinois, U.S.A., she has picked up one important

Co-owner Yeni Rodriguez scoops a big dip of delicious.

Purple Rain: The Prince-inspired Purple Rain is a popular flavor.

word for popsicle (palata de hielo), and “arte” for artistry – in Peoria’s Metro Centre. Within a year, she would be the sole owner. And then COVID-19 hit. Her doors closed by government mandate, it brought her to the breaking point. “She was alone on a sinking ship,” said McCall, who had made her acquaintance during his 2020 political run for Peoria County state’s attorney. “She was talking about selling her equipment. I told her, ‘Don’t do it. Let me help.’” Thus began a professional partnership that has brought them to 4301 N. Prospect Road in Peoria Heights, where Palarte shares a building with a State Farm Insurance office at the corner of Lake and Prospect. “Peoria Heights is one of the most happening areas in central Illinois,” said McCall. “We are literally dropping Mexico here in Peoria Heights.” All of the small-batch ice cream is made on site with fresh ingredients. Up to 70 flavors may be trotted out in any given year, some of them created around holidays and other themes, with half of those on tap at any given time. “On tap” may be the appropriate phrase, as Palarte has a liquor license and offers something of a unique product in central Illinois: an array of alcohol infused ice creams and slushies and agua frescas that come in cocktail and spirit flavors such as mojito, amaretto

stone sour, Long Island ice tea and Fireball whiskey. On St. Patrick’s Day, Guinness- and Irish Cream-flavored frozen concoctions were on the menu. Champagne-and wine-f lavored ice creams are available, as well.

Line up the agua frescas.

Mexican-inspired regular ice cream favorites, meanwhile, include blackberry queso, jalapeno andHabanero chocolate. Rodriguez may be the chief ice cream maker, but McCall is no passive partner, happy to fashion a recipe or jump in and churn a little cream himself. The musician Prince inspired the popular Purple Rain flavor, for example. Can Raspberry Beret be far behind? Her innovations can be spur of the moment, with her customers being the ultimate judges.

nugget of knowledge after another. “I have learned a lot of things from a lot of people,” Rodriguez said. She may pedal a soft – and delicious – product today, but “I learned business the hard way. I was very independent.”

Mike Bailey is editor in chief of Peoria Magazine

APRIL 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 19