I scream, you scream — downtown Eugene finally has ice cream.
The Mexican-style ice cream parlor Peek-A-Boo Delight La Michoacana Ice Cream celebrated its grand opening June 26, boasting a huge menu that features items ranging from dairy-free to savory.
Located across from the Broadway Metro movie theater on Willamette Street, the shop is the perfect place to grab a post-movie sweet treat or refreshing cold reprieve from a hot, summer day.
Owner Alma Vasquez didn’t make the jaunt from Mexico City to Eugene to open an ice cream place, though she had always wanted to. After she moved to the U.S., Vasquez cleaned houses while attending pastry school and studying English as a second language at Lane Community College. When she started getting sick from the cleaning chemicals she was around at work, Vasquez says, “my daughter pushed me. She said, ‘You need to do something different.’” Her daughter is 24-year-old Itzel Bigot, who, along with the rest of her family, promised Vasquez that she would follow her along the way. “I had a dream,” Vasquez says.
Vasquez switched gears, and focused on her pastry education, as she was always in love with desserts. . But, she says she was taken aback by the large amount of chemicals and unnatural ingredients that went into making standard ice cream, as opposed to the natural fruits and flavors of the desserts that she grew up with. “I missed the flavor of my country,” Vasquez says. “So I decided that I was going to learn how to make Mexican ice cream.”
Vasquez mastered her recipes, finished pastry school, and opened Peek-A-Boo Delight, a store that captures a flavorful mix of Mexican culture and childlike wonder.
Walking in, the customer is greeted with an array of vibrant colors, music and Vasquez’ handmade decorations of cardboard popsicles and hand-painted sprinkles scattered through the dining area.
Mariachi sombreros, Frida Kahlo paintings and mouth-watering pictures of menu staples such as churro splits and mangonadas, a sweet and spicy mango sorbet drink topped with chamoy and Tajin, adorn the brick walls. Next to a photo wall sporting the shop’s teddy bear logo, there’s a bright pink ice cream cart paying homage to the ones all over Vasquez’ home country — the carts that Vasquez bought her first ice cream from as a child.
Vasquez puts her own spin on the recipes that she grew up enjoying. She says she never liked that children can’t have as much ice cream as they’d like to, due to how sugary and unhealthy it is. Peek-a-Boo Delight’s desserts have less sugar, aren’t as sweet as traditional ice cream, and are made with all natural ingredients, Vasquez says. All menu items are handmade in-house at maximum deliciousness, all to ensure that parents don’t have to worry about what their kids are eating, leaving room to focus on savoring their treats.
“For me, it’s art,” Vasquez says. She takes time to make sure her creations look as good as they taste, whether it’s cutting up a perfect slice of strawberry or lime to place on her popsicles, or placing chocolate sauce over immaculate whipped cream stars on her egg waffles.
Speaking of which, Peek-A-Boo Delight offers many non-ice cream options as well. Vasquez and Bigot recommend frescos con crema, which is a sweet cream they make every day poured over freshly chopped strawberries. They also suggest the very popular esquite, Mexican street corn salad that comes with mayo, lime, cheese and optional hot sauce or Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Originally conceived as a food cart, Bigot convinced Vasquez that an ice cream parlor was the way to go. Now, the mother-daughter duo work as a team, with Vasquez working her magic as the food connoisseur, and Bigot doing all of the paperwork and social media while pursuing an advertising degree at the University of Oregon. The rest of the establishment is staffed entirely by their family, with Vasquez’ two boys and Bigot’s husband all working together behind the counter.
Bigot recently gave birth to a baby girl, named Rosalinda, and was only coming to work when it was busy. The pregnancy meant “I get in moods,” she says, but her mom “always makes the day pretty happy.” The pair said even when business gets chaotic, their tight-knit family dynamic helps things run smoothly. “Sometimes we do butt heads,” Bigot says, “but we never collide.”
They strive to learn as many of their customers’ names as possible. The biggest priority for Vasquez and her family is to bring a friendly environment and a taste of Mexican culture to downtown Eugene.
“I feel like sometimes our community gets excluded from a lot of stuff,” Vasquez says of the Mexican community. “So we wanted to bring something that would include everyone else, but also our community. We never shut the doors to anyone.”
They want anyone to feel like they can come in and unwind whenever they need to and enjoy everything the menu has to offer. “I’m very lucky to work for my community,” Vasquez says. “It’s my purpose.”
“For everyone, for every community, I say welcome and bienvenidos,” Vasquez says.