On a warm and sunny Cinco de Mayo last week, La Michoacana opened its doors for business for the first time to serve ice cream and frozen treats in Seymour.
La Michoacana has been a franchise in the United States for more than 25 years, but thanks to the Seymour store’s four independent owners, Jackson County can get a taste of what the store has to offer.
The ice cream store is located at 101 W. Tipton St. in a large 3,200-square-foot space. It’s owned by Francisco Marin, Fernando Marin, Marco Marin and Marco Antonio Marin.
Francisco Marin, son of co-owner Francisco Marin that he shares a name with, said at least one thing sets the newly opened business apart from other local ice cream stores.
“Here, we serve not only ice cream, but we serve a lot of Mexican traditional type things,” Marin said.
He detailed some signature menu items, such as la mangonadas, a mango ice cream treat that has fresh mango pieces and sauce on top. He said it’s the most popular item at the eatery.
The store also sells food items, like chips prepared with hot sauce and lime, and esquite, which is mixture of sweet corn, mayonnaise and cheese in a cup.
The esquite is another hot selling item at La Michoacana, Francisco said.
One unique aspect of La Michoacana is how the store keeps its ice cream tasting fresh.
“Everything is made here. It’s homemade. We don’t buy anything,” Francisco said.
Other items they sell include smoothies, shakes, popsicles, frozen fruit bars and frozen chocolate-dipped bananas.
“You will never come here and look at three items,” Marin said. “You will never get bored of the same thing. You’re not coming for the same thing. You have a variety.”
The original idea for opening the ice cream shop came from a friend of Francisco’s father who lived in Florida. The friend owned a La Michoacana store and always encouraged his father to open one of his own. Ten years later, the dream is alive.
“My dad is thankful to God for giving us this opportunity and giving us the chance to open it,” Marin said.
While new to Jackson County, La Michoacana is a familiar brand in the United States and Mexico.
“It’s a very known brand, like this is known all over places like Chicago. I love this place. In Mexico, you’ve got them everywhere,” Francisco said.
Getting in touch with a friend who’s an owner of a La Michoacana in Cincinnati to help, opening the Seymour location was about a yearlong process for the Marins.
For months, progress stalled on opening the store due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, but the family prevailed and the ice cream shop is now open in time in time for the summer.
“We couldn’t get anybody to help us out or anything like that,” Francisco said. “But we still pulled through. It took awhile, but we’re here now, and we’re starting up. Everything is going great right now, and people are loving it.”