{"id":273413,"date":"2026-08-27T19:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273413\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T19:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:20:13","slug":"meet-the-philadelphian-bringing-water-ice-to-disneyland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273413\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Philadelphian Bringing Water Ice to Disneyland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ&A<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

How West Philly native Lemier Mitchell took a hometown staple from a food truck to the Land of Mickey and Minnie.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Happy<\/p>\n

Happy Ice ribbon cutting at Downtown Disney \/ Photography courtesy of Downtown Disney District<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Listen to the audio edition here:<\/p>\n

You might not think \u201cPhilly\u201d when you think \u201cDisneyland.\u201d But this summer, West Philly native Lemier Mitchell brought a very Philly treat to the House of Mouse when he opened Happy Ice<\/a>, the first Black-owned dessert shop at the Downtown Disney complex in Orange County, California. His water ice store sits right alongside big shots like Gordon Ramsay\u2019s restaurants and huge, quick-service names like Starbucks and Salt & Straw ice cream.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pretty spectacular landing spot for a business that was never meant to become a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not what Los Angeles [was supposed to have] had in store for me,\u201d says Mitchell, 34 years old. \u201cIt was supposed to be a side investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell launched Happy Ice in L.A. as a food truck in 2017, after craving the sweet treat he couldn\u2019t find there, and encouragement from his mom finally pushed him to go all in. \u201cI lost my fear,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the belief I needed, from somebody else that was close to me, that made it all really happen. The next day I got the trademark and started working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell traveled back home and learned the water-ice trade at Fred\u2019s Water Ice in West Philly \u2014 everything from getting the texture right to mastering the scoop, skills he\u2019s now known for. When his apprenticeship ended, Fred\u2019s sold him a freezing barrel and syrups for just $6,000 (secondhand commercial machines usually run upwards of $35,000), which was all he needed to get started.<\/p>\n

Mitchell shipped it all \u2014 along with a food truck and freezer \u2014 to Los Angeles, where he launched what would become the bright, blue Happy Ice brick-and-mortar shop on Melrose Avenue. The frozen treat quickly became known for its neon colors, punchy flavor combinations, and celebrity customers (including Angelina Jolie). The clientele was so supportive that Mitchell eventually expanded his business to include three stores, including the Disneyland location.<\/p>\n

And while partnering with Disney is a dream come true for Mitchell, Happy Ice\u2019s success is rooted in the Philly artistry and grit that shaped his journey \u2014 a story he shares in his own words below.<\/p>\n

My name is \u2026 Lemier Mitchell, owner of Happy Ice, the water ice shop in Los Angeles and Disneyland.<\/p>\n

I grew up in \u2026 West Philly. I was born at 52nd and Hazel.<\/p>\n

My first job was \u2026 a tattoo artist in Philly. I decided I wanted to compete with the best in the world, and all of the best tattoo artists in the world were in California. I started to travel to California to learn about it.<\/p>\n

The day I got the idea for Happy Ice \u2026 I was at lunch in L.A. and there was a food truck on the corner. It was the nicest food truck I\u2019ve seen to this day. When I walked up, I noticed that it wasn\u2019t a food truck; it was basically a liquid nitrogen ice cream truck. Like, a super dope, old-school trailer. I was already so sad because I couldn\u2019t find Philly water ice anywhere, and it was just unbelievable to me. People like shaved ice, but nobody knew about Philly water ice \u2014 this makes no sense! Literally at that moment, I was like, \u201cWhat if I did Philly water ice out of a truck like this?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What makes Happy Ice different is \u2026 we focus on combination flavors. In Philly, you order a cup of lemon, right? Or a whole cup of cherry. That\u2019s normal. But we make combinations \u2014 like our Summer Time, which is mango, strawberry, and watermelon \u2014 and we scoop it to show the flavor\u2019s stripes. A new combination we launched this year is the Cloud Nine, a mixture of lime, watermelon, blue raspberry, and pineapple \u2014 and it is phenomenal.<\/p>\n

The most surprising thing about opening a water ice shop in Los Angeles is \u2026 I have to explain what water ice is to people all the time. They don\u2019t have a clue. I tell people, imagine if ice cream, sorbet, and shaved ice came together and had a child, but it was dairy-free. It\u2019s smooth, but not thick. And we\u2019re set up for sampling.<\/p>\n

The best trick I learned about selling water ice was \u2026 learning how to scoop. We have a flavor called the Rainbow Rocket, and we scoop it so that it actually looks like a rainbow, with all the flavors layered and looking super cool. First, I was getting those stripes by accident, and I thought, How do I get these stripes every single time? Once I learned how to do that, that cup started going viral. And so that was a big moment.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles inspiration I\u2019m bringing to Philly water ice is \u2026 About 70 percent of our menu is all-natural, and by the end of 2026, every flavor that you can possibly get at Happy Ice will be all-natural. Every competitor I\u2019ve researched uses corn syrup, dyes, and different food colorings, all the things that parents that are more health conscious [avoid] now \u2014 like I am myself: I have two daughters. But because nobody cared about that in Philly, I never thought to research it.<\/p>\n

The most L.A. thing that has happened at Happy Ice was \u2026 Angelina Jolie is one of those A-list celebrities that you just don\u2019t have a lot of sightings of, but she came to our truck with her two children. She ordered a lemon ice and a pretzel. We didn\u2019t get a photo, but paparazzi got her in front of the truck<\/a> eating the pretzel with her two kids eating their Happy Ice.<\/p>\n

The most interesting thing about opening a shop at Disneyland \u2026 Is learning the Disney way to do service. The thing that\u2019s so amazing is, I started to read all these books about Disney like Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service, and just learning about the engine, the way they think, and [right after that, in] April 2021, Disney called me. [The guy from Disney] was like, \u201cHey, what if you just come for a pop up at Downtown Disney<\/a>?\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cHeck yeah!\u201d I learned how they tell people directions. I learned about how they build out spaces, how they always have a centerpiece, so people know to go to a certain point in the park. I was just super excited about all the stuff I learned about the Disney way of doing things [during the pop-ups].<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The future of Happy Ice looks like \u2026 I\u2019m gonna be able to sleep very good at night, when I have 1,000 franchised locations, knowing people are consuming real ingredients and not super-processed products.<\/p>\n

When you visit Los Angeles, definitely order \u2026 our banana pudding Joylati. We make banana ice from scratch; we peel bananas, blend them, puree it, and make an all-natural banana ice. It is insanely good. We make a banana pudding in-house. We layer banana pudding, our house-made vanilla ice cream, the banana ice, Nilla Wafer crumbles, and banana chunks. It is off-the-charts addictive and is one of the most popular items at all our locations.<\/p>\n

The thing I miss most about Philadelphia \u2026 is getting water ice that isn\u2019t mine. The humidity in the summer and being out at 10 p.m. at night with a pretzel and an ice.\u00a0 I miss block party cookouts, and I miss the connection of the city. There\u2019s a deep connection we all have with each other. Out here it\u2019s super ambitious. It\u2019s all about doing it bigger and bigger and bigger. And I miss the love and organic relationships in Philly.<\/p>\n