La Guerrerense brings over 100 Mexican ice cream flavors to Philly’s Italian Market

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If there is such a thing as ice cream architecture, brothers Gabriel and Antonio Rojas have studied it empirically for the last 15 years.

On the corner of Ninth and Ellsworth Streets, their ice cream parlor La Guerrerense wows ice cream aficionados with close to a hundred complex ice cream and popsicle flavors, including mango and chile, beso de angel (a combination of cherry, marshmallow, and almond), mamey, tequila, and pine nut.

Although they have become a local staple, distributing to 65 stores across Philly’s tristate area and selling over 110 gallons of ice cream weekly, La Guerrerense’s story doesn’t begin in Philly.

The Rojas grew up in Guerrero, Mexico, helping their family make traditional homemade ice cream to sell at the town’s fairs. With no industrialized equipment at home, they spun wooden buckets full of fruit, milk, or water on salted ice.

At the time, a 10-year-old Gabriel saw the process as a chore. “I just wanted to be an architect,” he recalls, smiling. However, the lack of resources killed that dream.

In 1986, he was in Los Angeles working in orchards and vineyards. Not long after, Antonio joined him in the United States, and began cooking in Italian kitchens. Soon, the brothers pondered the idea of opening their own restaurant. In 1992, a plan was set in motion: Antonio returned to Mexico to attend culinary school and Gabriel stayed behind working multiple jobs to finance their new dream.

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Once in Mexico City, Antonio met a pair of siblings who owned an ice cream parlor, La Vaquita. He introduced them to Gabriel.

The quartet kept in touch through the years, and every time Gabriel visited Mexico, he learned a little more about the ice cream business. In contrast to his childhood, he became fascinated by the infinite amount of ice cream mixing possibilities. But the priority was the restaurant and he wasn’t about to derail that project.

“Sometimes we think our things aren’t as good as the gringos. This was my chance to prove that Mexican ice cream is as good as gelato.”

Fourteen years went by, during which time the Rojas brothers moved to Delaware and began their own families. In 2006, they opened La Cabaña Restaurant in Stanton, Del.

A year later, while on a work trip, Gabriel visited Philly’s Italian Market. He was fascinated by the number of Italian shops and inspired by the Mexican community in the area. “Sometimes we think our things aren’t as good as the gringos,” he said. “This was my chance to prove that Mexican ice cream is as good as gelato.”

With Antonio focused on the restaurant, ice cream had room to freeze in Gabriel’s head. “All my effort and sacrifice went, and goes, into trying to come up with a mix capable of making people say, ‘Wow! This is a delight.’ ”

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In 2008, the siblings rented a building in Stanton, painted the walls fuchsia and green, installed blue tile flooring, freezers, and a food-prepping area, and called it La Guerrerense.

“I used to tell him he was crazy,” said Gabriel’s wife, Marbella Ayala Garcia. “The restaurant didn’t have many years under the belt and we had three daughters to feed.”

La Guerrerense refers to the people of Guerrero, the Rojases’ home state. The logo, a cartoon doll dressed in bright pink and yellow, further represents their cultural identity, a nod to the state’s traditional attire.

For over 300 days, Ayala Garcia spent many dawns bringing Gabriel coffee and making Mexican snacks like esquites, nachos, aguas frescas, and dorilocos to sell. Meanwhile, he mixed 20 ice cream flavors and handcrafted 10 fruit popsicle flavors per week.

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Their daughter, Gabriela Rojas, remembers coming home from school to find her dad mixing flavors. Fruits and various ingredients filled the counter space, as he approached her, ice cream spoon in hand, with a common refrain: “Give me your honest opinion.”

If the flavor was approved by the kids, a celebratory dance was in order. If it didn’t pass the test, Gabriel went back to mixing. This tradition continues, resulting in her favorite flavors like cappuccino and the latest addition, tiramisu.

“He doesn’t know how to stop,” said Gabriela. “It’s his passion.”

Gabriel was prepared to give the store three years to succeed. “If it didn’t work, I was going to do it as taco sellers do and move to a new corner,” he said. However, within the first year, the ice cream store blossomed. They went from struggling to get customers to distributing La Guerrerense products to over 30 stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

In 2016, the Rojas brothers decided it was time to expand. “I knew that if I was to open another location, it had to be in Philadelphia,” said Gabriel. “It had to be in the Italian Market.”

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As it happened in Delaware, the business was a success within two years.

Not even the pandemic slowed them down: In 2021, the Rojases opened a third location in Atlantic City.

A restaurant and three ice cream parlors later, they credit the success of La Guerrerense to their family’s hard work and the community’s openness to try their creations.

“As Latinos, we sometimes fear making our dreams come true here,” said Antonio. Which is why as they eye Maryland for expansion, they are also helping other community members pursue their dreams.

“It’s not a competition,” said Gabriel. “When one wins, the community wins.”

As La Guerrerense reaches its quinceañera, the siblings hope their children continue the family business. Their ice cream-making efforts also go to ensuring their kids “can follow their [own] dreams,” said Gabriel, something his daughter Gabriela treasures as she studies finance.

“La Guerrerense is my family’s legacy, and I hope to turn it into a franchise one day,” she said.

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