Zonkey / San Diego, CA
Photo Credit: Zonkey Paletas
Paleteria Pops
Don’t mistake paletas (“pall-e-tas”) for ordinary popsicles. A frozen Mexican treat made from fresh fruit, milk-based ingredients, spicy flavorings, and oozy centers, paletas emphasize fresh, natural ingredients and infinite flavor combinations.
Andrew Cordero is the recipe developer & partner for Zonkey, a paleteria with a funky 80s pop theme in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego. Serving gourmet Mexican paletas and aqua frescas, Zonkey is an offshoot of the beloved San Diego taco shop Lucha Libre. Zonkey offers 20-plus gourmet Mexican paletas flavors with custom toppings and dips at any given time.
Boozy versions of Andrew’s paletas are inspired by classic cocktails like the pîna colada. His dairy-free version features rice milk, rich, silky Perfect Purée Coconut, tangerine, and pineapple juice. Oloroso sherry adds nutty, caramelized notes. Zonkey’s Mojito mixes The Perfect Purée’s newest flavor Lime Zest with mint and coconut water — a perfect treat for Cinco de Mayo.
With a beer and wine license in North Park, Zonkey’s boozy paletas are spiked with sherry, wine, and beer. Manzanilla’s briny bite is a good stand-in for tequila and challenges people’s notion of conventional mojitos, Andrew says. Frose paletas feature rosé wine, White Peach and Strawberry Purée. The Michelada is made with Mexican lager. Andrew’s secret pro tip is dipping paletas in agua fresca, Zonkey’s signature Mexican refreshers of fresh fruit, juice, and water.
North Park Nostalgia
Named after the painted donkeys that provided photo ops for tourists on Tijuana’s Avenida Revolucion starting in the 1930s, Zonkey has nostalgic appeal for the owners of the Lucha Libre group — brothers Diego, Jose Luis, and Maurilio Rojano-Garcia and partner Jo Stewart.
“Growing up, they lived bi-nationally, they would cross the border very often,” Andrew says. “When they first started [Lucha Libre] 15 years ago, they didn’t have kids. Now that they have kids, they look at life a little a bit differently. They wanted to add this element of Mexican popsicles they grew up with and wanted a place for their kids to go.”
Since moving to San Diego 15 years ago, cross-border life has become part of Andrew’s ritual at least once a month. The trips inform his work at Zonkey and as beverage director for Michelin-starred Campfire and Jeune et Jolie in Carlsbad.
Andrew’s background as a bartender appealed to the group’s vision of a gourmet Mexican paletas shop in North Park. “Ice cream was not my world. I make cocktails for a living. I was very curious about why they chose me, but they did,” he said, laughing. His ability to translate cocktail recipes, research unique flavor combinations and maintain consistent formulas and textures has made Zonkey a new destination.
All of Zonkey’s gourmet Mexican paletas emphasize the freshest top-quality ingredients. “Essentially, they’re cocktails that have been made into ice cream,” Andrew says. For now, Zonkey has one location in North Park, but Andrew says there are plans to expand to a location where it can operate with a full liquor license.
Perfect Paletas
The Perfect Purée, always one of Andrew’s bar essentials, translates well to boozy paletas. Mango features the velvety sweet flavor of The Perfect Purée Mango with citrus, passionfruit, house chamoy, and sherry. The chamoy is a plum and tamarind derivative made by reducing The Perfect Purée Tamarind with sugar. Andrew adds spices to the chamoy and injects it into the popsicle with fino sherry, whose lighter, drier profile offsets the sweetness of mango.
Zero-proof but no less sophisticated paletas include Ponytail, a bright combination of The Perfect Purée White Peach, grapefruit and lime juices, and elderflower syrup. Hazelnut cream-filled strawberry is also popular.
“We use The Perfect Purée for pretty much all of the flavors,” Andrew says. “It definitely lends color, and all of our popsicles have to have bright colors. That’s the aesthetic of the brand.”
Consistency matters just as much at Zonkey. “What we look for in any experience is a product that’s useful and consistent. The Perfect Purée is just consistent from the source. That’s what we look for in beverages and food every night, something that just tastes consistent every single time.”