Owner Jose Valverde has confirmed via phone to What Now Orlando that his new ice cream restaurant, La Michoacana Factory, is projected to open at 4125 W. Silver Springs Blvd #1 in Ocala by August 1.
The restaurant is currently in the process of plan review.
Valverde is a third-generation ice cream maker. He follows his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps in the business and in La Michoacana. His father was in the business for 58 years. Valverde formerly owned two locations of La Michoacana in Hesperia and Ontario, California.
La Michoacana is not a chain or a franchise as you would normally think of one. It is not just one company, but small and independent family-owned palaterias or ice cream shops that use the same name and concept in different parts of Mexico, where the company originated, or the United States.
Valverde told What Now Orlando that his ice cream shop will have 48 flavors of ice cream including Angel’s Kiss, Birthday Cake, and a Ferrero Rocher-inspired flavor. Since La Michoacana Factory will be a palateria or ice cream shop that sells paletas, the location’s ice cream will sell those Mexican-style popsicles that are made of real fruit.
The restaurant will also sell crepes and Mexican specialties like elote, a Mexican street corn snack that is corn on the cob slathered with margarine, mayonnaise, lime juice, Cotija cheese, chili powder, and esquite, which is the same recipe as an elote, but the corn is off the cob and is served in a cup.
Valverde told What Now Orlando that he is confident that La Michoacana Factory will bring the city of Ocala something new that they have never tasted before.
