The East Bay’s most traditional ice cream maker is now churning one of its most untraditional flavors: molé.
Back in 2007, the Express discovered Fruitvale frozen dessert maker Luis Abundis, still the only guy in the Bay Area we know who’s turning out nieves de garrafa, ices made the way they were before the rise of the crank freezer, which is to say completely by hand. Abundis has a smile only slightly less impressive than his upper-body strength. Standing at his garrafa — a metal canister wedged inside a wooden bucket filled with ice and salt — he turns out multiple batches of ices every day, beating house-made mixes with a hand-held paddle till they freeze.
- John Birdsall
- Mole ice cream.
