In the early months of 2010 Stephen DiMare was working in Montana for a winter at the Lodge at Big Sky and flew home to St. Augustine for a friend's wedding. On the flight he pitched his idea for a coffee shop to the (random) nice woman sitting next to him. She told him that what he needed in his coffee shop were ice pops, gourmet ice pops in the Mexican style. Stephen listened as she explained that paletas (Spanish for ice pops) could contain anything from cucumbers to fresh pineapple to jalapeños.
With his interest piqued, Stephen returned to Montana to finish the winter ski season. He bought a set of cheap plastic ice pop molds and spent his evenings trying different combinations of flavors (as there is nothing to do in Montana after dark) and let the guests at the hotel try them and give feedback. When he came back to St. Augustine in April he had enough money saved to buy some semi-industrial ice pop molds and pay first and last months' rent on a little retail space in downtown St. Augustine.
The slow economy had made available several spots in the busy tourist area that otherwise would have been out of the league of someone starting with so little. The shop opened for business on June 5 after lots of support from friends and family volunteering to paint and hauling freezers (up stairs, no less!). Despite a hilarious string of experiments and missteps trying to figure out larger-scale popsicle production, Stephen eventually succeeded in meeting demand (although many nights were spent sleeping on the floor at the shop).
