Open & Shut: Anchorage gets a Mexican ice cream shop, a restaurant, a healthy snack bar and a coffee hut

Open & Shut is an ongoing series looking at the comings and goings of businesses in Southcentral Alaska. If you know of a business opening or closing in the area, send a note to reporter Alex DeMarban at alex@adn.com with “Open & Shut” in the subject line.

Open

La Michoacana The Last Frontier: Daniela and Jesus Villa launched this shop in Midtown Anchorage to sell Mexican-style ice cream and popsicle-like desserts called paletas.

As kids, the Villas were next-door neighbors from a small town in Mexico, Daniela Villa said.

They later married. Several years after Daniela and Jesus Villa had both settled in Alaska, they started making ice cream at home. Taste-testing friends and family helped them improve their craft. They saved money to open the business by selling carnitas by the pound at fairs.

La Michoacana, named for the ice cream shops from the Villas’ home state in Mexico, launched this spring.

It sells ice cream by the scoop, and more than 40 varieties of paletas that look like little works of art. Some are inlaid with slices of fruit. Others swirl with flavors like chocolate or rompope, an eggnog-like drink.

“Everything is handmade here at the shop,” she said. “We don’t use anything that is artificial.”

The paletas include chocolate abuelita, made with cinnamon-infused Mexican chocolate, fruta, made with kiwi, peach and strawberry slices, and Fruity Pebbles with colorful chunks of the cereal.

La Michoacana also sells lunch and dinner items like shrimp ceviche and torta sandwiches, and drinks like agua de jamaica and traditional horchata made with cinnamon. Mangonada, made with mango sorbet and topped with chili powder and Mexican candy, is another popular item, Daniela said.

The shop is located at the strip mall at 2808 E. Tudor Road, near Lake Otis Parkway.

The inside is festooned with big murals, ceiling decorations colored like the Mexican flag, and portraits that include Frida Kahlo and the Virgin Mary. There’s a play area for kids with free Pac-Man arcade games.

It plans a celebration on Sunday from 3-6 p.m. for Mexican Independence Day, which is Monday. The party will feature a DJ spinning Mexican pop and free face-painting.

Friends of the owners will also build an altar in the store for Day of the Dead, she said.

On Tuesday afternoon, customer Victor Muniz sat a table enjoying a sweet mazapan drink and waiting for a torta. He’s from Tijuana. He quickly became a regular, he said.

“It’s a fun, colorful place,” he said. “It reminds me of home.”

La Michoacana is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. most days, noon to 9 p.m. Sunday, and closed Monday.

SupHerb Dispensary: Family and friends launched this marijuana dispensary in the industrial heart of downtown Anchorage this summer, near Ship Creek.

SupHerb Dispensary was born from a “love for growing cannibas,” said Christine Williams, a co-owner along with her husband, Oscar Velasco, and their friend, Roberto Vallejo. The head cultivator is Alfonso Velasco, Oscar’s brother.

SupHerb sells high-quality flowers, joints and other products, she said.

Before opening, the partners spent a few years perfecting their marijuana strains in grow rooms in the dispensary, she said. It’s located at 2121 Post Road.

Popular strains include the Grumpz, Golden Goat and the high-THC Jordanz, she said.

The menu includes a $5 joint consisting of a “full gram pre-roll of all strains” using flowers, she said.

“Nothing is crazy-priced,” she said. “And we don’t use trim or shake or water leaf, stuff you don’t want to smoke.”

Roberto’s Restaurant: Homemade chile rellenos, Mexican-style street corn, and enchiladas coated in fresh mole are some of the specialties at Roberto’s, a restaurant that opened in Spenard last month.

There’s also American fare like avocado toast, club sandwiches, soups and salads.

“It’s a comfort, family restaurant,” said Roberto Bonilla, the restaurant’s chef and namesake.

Bonilla operates the restaurant with his wife, Arlen Bonilla Ambriz, their four children, and his brother-in-law, Erick Ambriz. They serve a variety of dishes to ensure every customer can get something that they want — “not just Mexican food,” Bonilla said.

Bonilla is originally from Honduras, but he’s been an Anchorage resident since 1983. He attended the King Career Center culinary school, and spent the next few decades working in kitchens around Anchorage. He opened the El Mariachi Street Tacos restaurant on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Roberto’s is housed on the bottom floor of the newly renovated Emerald Building at 1407 W. 31st Ave.

Bonilla plans to host catered events on the building’s top two floors in the future, including a beer and wine bar on the seventh floor. The restaurant also operates a coffee bar. It’s open when the Bonilla’s teenage daughter, Samanta, is on hand to run it. They hope to train more staff on it soon.

Ambriz, from the Mexican state of Hidalgo, said she brings authenticity to the kitchen, including family recipes.

“I grew up in Mexico, so I know what is the real thing,” said Ambriz.

She brings ingredients back to Anchorage after trips home, including an herb called epazote, to make their food more flavorful and authentic.

The family knows they’ve hit their mark when Latino diners ask to speak with Ambriz because they’re impressed with the food.

“That’s the best compliment,” she said.

Roberto’s is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It might open on Sundays in the future, he said.

[Dining review: Midtown Mexican food options are increasing, and increasingly tasty]

The Cold Coconut: The founder of Kat’s Epic Trail Bites, a popular trail snack, has launched a storefront business in Midtown.

Kat Fluri said The Cold Coconut provides healthy food and drinks that meet broad tastes and unique dietary needs.

The shop sells house-made smoothies with fresh fruit, she said. The granola is handmade. Everything is gluten free, including the pizza slices.

The shop also sells a variety of acai bowls and coffees, like blended iced mochas sweetened with date syrup.

Everything can be specially made depending on diets, she said.

Customers can fill out order forms at the counter listing their preferred ingredients, or just let Fluri know what they want.

“Even the ice is made with distilled water,” she said. “So there are no chemicals in the food.”

Fluri starting making the protein-enhanced, “fruit-sweetened” trail bites more than a decade ago. She did it to address her medical needs like low blood sugar and a genetic disorder that affected her diet known as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, she said.

“I just have trouble eating food that’s not healthy,” she said.

The trail snacks are sold in about 100 shops in Alaska, providing income that helped launched Cold Coconut, she said.

“My desire is ultimately to have kind of a test kitchen and create snacks that will help people with all types of medical conditions,” said Fluri, a former social worker. “I get pretty jazzed about that. I don’t believe there’s any one-size-fits-all diet.”

The Cold Coconut is located at 2217 E. Tudor Road, near Golden Donuts. It’s open noon to 6 p.m. on weekdays, closed on weekends.

Little Millers: This coffee and ice cream shop from Wasilla opened its first coffee hut in Anchorage last month.

It’s a hit, judging from the lines of cars curling from both windows.

Owner Alex Betsill said customers arrive for the soft-serve cones after the coffee rush slows.

The ice creams include blueberry cheesecake, pumpkin twist, cotton candy and many others. Little Millers sells other treats like sundaes, shakes, breakfast burritos and a turkey pesto panini.

Betsill said he and his wife were fortunate to fall into the business.

They hit it off with the original owners, Gary and Debbie Miller, while trying to buy property from them a couple years ago. The Millers started the business in Wasilla more than 30 years ago, growing it to three locations there, Betsill said.

Betsill decided to bring Little Millers to Anchorage after hearing strong demand for it. It’s located at 710 Benson Blvd., off Arctic Boulevard.

“The Millers are an exceptional family that built this amazing name and business and we were fortunate enough to be trusted enough to take it to this new length,” he said.

The business is focused on being a positive influence in the community, Betsill said.

“Every person who comes through has value and we’re grateful for the warm reception from Anchorage and we’re thankful for the opportunity that God has given us to do this,” he said.

Tommy’s Express Car Wash: This car wash is now open in South Anchorage at 1850 Abbott Road, near the Carrs grocery store.

Tommy’s is part of a national chain. It has local ownership in Katrina Davis, a medical school student in Anchorage whose family owns a Tommy’s franchise in Kansas.

The Tommy’s is one of multiple express car wash businesses opening in Anchorage, where long winters and grime create high demand.

The express car washes use conveyor-belt-style facilities to clean vehicles at a faster clip than other car washes, the owners say.

Shut

Cafecito Bonito: Estrella Rodriguez-Northcutt is selling this coffee shop in Northeast Anchorage after a 3.5-year run.

Cafecito Bonito became a haven for the queer community and other people, she said. It has been a “sober, all-ages, family friendly space,” she said.

The shop’s calendar is nearly booked solid with birthday celebrations, bachelorette parties and other events through Nov. 16, she said. That might be the shop’s last day, depending on what the new owners decide to do, she said.

It’s possible they’ll keep the shop’s name and style, she said. Cafecito served zero-proof mocktails like hibiscus sangria and coffees with a Latin American flair, like horchata lattes using sweet rice milk.

Recover Alaska, an organization that fights alcohol misuse, recently gave Cafecito Bonito an award for supporting sober events, she said.

“Just being a sober space in Anchorage it was popular, because there aren’t many in Anchorage,” she said.

Cafecito plans to celebrate on Nov. 16 with a mariachi band, she said. When the snow falls, she’ll move to Puerto Rico with her fiance to take a dream job as a park ranger.

“I love Anchorage,” she said, but couldn’t pass up the Puerto Rico opportunity.