Tizo's Pops & Ice Cream
Nothing can conjure up carefree childhood memories quite like the crowd-pleasing, brain-freezing wonder known as the popsicle. I grew up out in the sticks where the ice cream trucks don’t drive, but I still remember the sheer delight I felt every time I saw my mom’s antique ice cream maker on the counter. I started making my own frozen treats (minus the crank and rock salt) in adulthood, so I was thrilled to find a family of kindred spirits with Martha Godinez and her sons, Roberto Jr. and Omar, the masterminds behind Tizo’s Pops & Ice Cream.
For three generations, the Godinez family has been perfecting the art of paletas, gourmet Mexican popsicles with a rich history, and the fruits of their labor are evident — quite literally. Much like the earliest iterations of the paleta, you can see the fresh fruit inside, such as kiwi, strawberries, and avocado. But don’t mistake Tizo’s for a one-trick pony. There’s something for everyone on its eclectic menu, which packs a whopping 80+ flavors of dairy and non-dairy paletas, dozens of classic Mexican beverages like horchata and aguas frescas, and 20+ kinds of ice cream, including a goat cheese and guava mashup that I’ve been daydreaming about ever since I tried it.
When I sat down with the Godinez family, what I can only describe as a paleta-palooza unfolded. In addition to the fruity flavors, there are colorful, Instagram-worthy paletas like bubblegum, savory options like gazpacho or shrimp cocktail, spicy paletas sprinkled with Tajín seasoning, and filled paletas, a fan favorite featuring decadent ingredients like Nutella and caramel. Based on my own experiments, I expected the paleta incorporating tidbits of a Gansito (the Twinkie’s Mexican cousin) to be slightly soggy, but it was surprisingly spongy — a phenomenon Roberto Jr. attributed to its freshness. “We’ve been growing a lot, but we don’t have a walk-in freezer, so we’re constantly making fresh batches,” he admits.
This is fitting, albeit frustrating, given that the paleta sprang from its own challenges in the 1940s in Tocumbo, a tiny town in the Mexican state of Michoacán, where Roberto’s grandfather Ignacio grew up. Life there was harsh, and workers only earned two pesos for cutting 2,000 pounds of sugarcane. To make ends meet, a man named Ignacio Alcazar began whipping up frozen treats with whatever he had on hand, including fruits, nuts, and milk, and sold them from a colorful cart. Practically everyone in town learned to make paletas, and it didn’t take long for them to take the world by storm. Alcazar’s original paleteria, La Michoacána, is now a franchise with more than a thousand locations in Mexico City alone.
In 1973, Ignacio Godinez and his wife, Leonila, opened their first paleteria in Aguascalientes, Mexico, when Roberto Sr. was seven years old. As an adult, Roberto Sr. teamed up with his father and a business partner to open Oklahoma’s first authentic paleteria in 1996, and the entire family joined them in Oklahoma City in 2011. Two years later, Roberto Sr. and Martha opened the paleteria that’s now Tizo’s, first under the name El Buen Gusto Michoacano. After their sons joined the business, they changed the name to make it easier for folks of other cultures to pronounce, which is just one of many ways they’ve worked to make the paleteria an accessible, welcoming place for all. Each family member brings their own strengths to the table — for Martha, that’s decades of lived experience and recipes, while Roberto Jr. harnesses his passion for people to enhance customer service. As for the aesthetic, that’s all Omar. Though he currently lives in Mexico City, he channels his eye for art into the branding side to make Tizo’s digital presence feel as vibrantly inviting as its physical space.
Obviously, there’s no shortage of creativity in the Godinez family, and they don’t keep it all to themselves. They invite every guest to pick up a paintbrush and customize their paleta any number of ways: dipping it in hot fudge or tangy chamoy sauce, embellishing it with their choice of 20+ toppings, or coating it with marshmallow before charring it to perfection. With 80+ paletas on tap, there are millions of flavor combinations just waiting to be discovered (and devoured). I can’t wait to go back and let my inner child run wild!
> Tizo’s Pops & Ice Cream, 5125 S. Western Ave., Oklahoma City, (405) 673-7466, tizospops.com, @tizospops
