I’ve just returned from a most magical place — it has polished, gleaming stainless-steel tables and shelving and pristine white walls and flooring. Its giant freezers are filled with a multitude of delectable frozen confections boasting an array of creative flavors, all packaged and labeled for the lucky recipients who will enjoy them in a cup or a cone in the shop or from a carton from a local store.
I recently left a hot, sultry day behind me at the Railyard as I toured the production kitchen of Santa Fe’s La Lecheria, where I was schooled in large production churning.
The wizard behind La Lecheria’s stone cold success is chef and restaurateur Joel Coleman. Coleman, a major player in Santa Fe’s vibrant restaurant scene for more than 20 years, has owned and cooked at a long list of popular eateries. But it appears as though he has found a new — and perhaps more chill place — simply churning craft ice creams and sorbets. The flavors he creates are pure imagination, to coin a Willy Wonka phrase, and his dedication to his creations is worthy of a golden ticket.
I have known Coleman throughout his local career and have been a fan and eaten at virtually every dining establishment he worked at, whether he owned them or was cheffing. Santa Fe foodies will recognize most if not all of his career stops, including Coyote Café and the now-defunct Mu Du Noodles, Mauka, and Koi. In spring of 2022, Coleman sold his stake in Fire & Hops to focus on his ice cream business full-time. The popular pub closed in September of last year.
When we meet for my tour, he reminds me with a laugh of the time I told a server that Coleman’s bread pudding needed more sugar, to which he sent a message back to the table, simply stating that he thought it was perfect. Later that night, I texted him to say that the fact he felt the dish’s sweetness was exactly where he wanted it to be made me question my own palate.
At another restaurant where Coleman was cooking, he sent out a “surprise” dish that was meant for me to discern what it was. It was parmesan-crusted, fried little balls that, in fact, turned out to be just that: crispy lamb Rocky Mountain oysters (they were less enjoyable once they’d been identified).
Another night, he sent a special appetizer that consisted of deep-fried crabs the size of your thumbnail. The smaller one on the plate of two had a nice salty crunch that yielded easily with my bite, while the second, which was slightly bigger, didn’t collapse quite so easily; it was a sensation that I imagined was equal to what chewing a Christmas tree light bulb would feel like.
During his tenure at Fire & Hops, Coleman started playing with different flavors of ice creams for his dessert menu and caught the attention of a local business owner who thought the frozen treats could be sold in a separate business endeavor — and offered to help start it as its own thing.
La Lecheria was born in August 2016. The first location, in the Lena Street lofts, grew to a second parlor on Marcy Street, with the latest incarnation being a sole shop in the Railyard just steps from the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, Violet Crown movie theater, and numerous music and cultural events.
People fill the lobby of La Lecheria at the Railyard on Friday, July 5.
The busy shop in the front masks the large production kitchen behind it; more than 2,700 square feet of creamy construction. Despite the incredible volume of product Coleman and his team need to make to meet demand, all the magic takes place in an American-made Emery Thompson machine — no fancy Italian getup here. Coleman laughs as he shares the reason he uses a U.S.-made machine: “If you think about it, Italian sports cars are always in the shop.”
Each batch takes roughly seven minutes to freeze and produces only six quarts per spin. Some of the eclectic flavors are churned into the process while some are stirred in after the churn but before storing and further freezing. Multiple freezers are needed to store this deliciousness and on the day of my visit, Coleman was ramping up for July sales, his busiest month of the year.
And what of those unique and original flavors? With a cup of tasting spoons in hand, I am a kid in a candy store, sampling from container to container (no double-dipping, I promise).
First I try the popular chocolate-sea salt: yum. Next was a surprise, an unexpected blending of turmeric and black pepper. Coleman tells me that when the natural anti-inflammatory turmeric is mixed with pepper, it enhances the properties tenfold. (That should be a required daily prescription for those with stiff joints.)
From top: Mango chile lime sorbet, mint chip, and chocolate sea salt ice cream are just a few of the selections at La Lecheria ice cream shop.
Another tasty curiosity is a pomegranate-olive oil concoction that’s initially odd on the palate but becomes a winner. The olive oil lends an unexpected butteriness to the mix. I also enjoy the green chile-vanilla that offers a nice kick on a cold tongue.
The flavors change regularly, so ice cream fans need to visit at least once per week to experience the rotation, which might include butterscotch miso, black sesame, mole, sweet corn, red chile-honey, maple walnut, goat cheese-blackberry, passion orange guava sorbet, prickly pear margarita sorbet, avocado, habanero vanilla, coconut miso (vegan), mango ginger sorbet, citrus basil, and Cracker Jack. The classic vanilla bean, chocolate sea salt, Java Joe coffee, and mint chip are always on offer, with homemade waffle cones as an option to the classic cone.
I ask him where he gets inspiration for his flavors. “It changes frequently,” Coleman says. “Travel is always the most influential, but sometimes it can just be the most random thing, or I’m eating something, looking at something and think, ‘That could be a really good ice cream.’
“We are about 80% organic, using Organic Valley milk and cream, plus organic sugar. We use Eldora [craft chocolatier in Albuquerque] for a lot of our chocolate, Java Joes for coffee, Artful Tea for tea, and Savory Spice. I value being as organic as possible and local when available.”
Any flavors that were flopperoos — Ranch (too bizarre) and golden beet (too earthy) — he admits didn’t exactly fly out of the shop. But he gets kudos for at least thinking outside the (ice) box and infusing pure imagination.
Coleman says he likes the parlor pace, but I ask if he misses the restaurant business of cooking and running his own place. “I do miss it; this is certainly less stressful than restaurants,” he says. “But when you think about it, no one has bad experiences connected with ice cream that I know of, right?”
Despite being surrounded by cream and sugar, the tall Coleman looks noticeably trimmer than the last time I saw him. “I really got into exercise and running to work off stress,” he says. “It’s funny — I’m in better shape than I was when I was younger.”
He also recently consulted on Remix Audio Bar, located in the former Fire & Hops location (“Go try my killer ramen,” he suggests). He’s toying with the idea of an Albuquerque La Lecheria and would like to plan pop-ups in Santa Fe that would serve favorite dishes from his previous menus. For now, his hot pink cow motif ice cream trucks often show up at summer concerts and events, and the trucks also are available for private parties.
Look for La Lecheria goodies in stores too, including La Montañita Food Co-op and Kaune’s Neighborhood Market, and in such Santa Fe eateries as Back Road Pizza, Paper Dosa, Midtown Bistro, and NOSA in Ojo Caliente as well as in Los Poblanos and Eldora Craft Chocolate in Albuquerque.
Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew, cover it with chocolate and a miracle or two? The Ice Cream Man can — ’cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good! ◀
Johnny Vee grew up a chubby child who spent the summers of his youth in Rochester, New York, lapping up as much Abbott’s Frozen Custard as he could get his hands on. His first job at 16 was as a soda jerk in a Woolworth’s creating sundaes and shakes before moving up to grill master. He has been known to drive to Las Cruces to enjoy Caliches Frozen Custard.
