Ice cream and hot sauce. A combination that one wouldn’t normally pair together. But at Frozen Rainbow this is a commonality.
Ducle Castaneda, manager at Frozen Rainbow, says that they tend to mix foods in their store and that she personally does this all the time.
“Once you taste it, it’s actually really tasty. It’s not really a spicy sauce so it kind of blends with the sweetness and it’s sour and a little spicy so it’s really good,” said Castaneda. “It enhances a new taste.”
Frozen Rainbow is a family-owned ice cream parlor that opened at the end of March. The store categorizes itself as an ice cream parlor but they sell more than just ice cream. A variety of other foods such as corn, nachos, parfaits, ice cream and Italian ice to name a few are offered as well. Frozen Rainbow also makes special dishes like The Crazy Pineapple or The Crazy Watermelon.
Castaneda saw that in Mexico there was something called fruit cocktails and in the U.S. people started making faces and different designs with the fruit in that dish.
“Right here, people want food fast. So I want to do something that’s nice but not too complicated to create,” said Castaneda. “ I started making different designs and that’s where I came up with the Crazy Pineapple and Crazy Watermelon.”
After Frozen Rainbow started making these fruit creations other stores started to copy what they were doing, according to Castaneda.
“It started getting popular on the internet and now more people are following what we started. So other places, like in Chicago, they have the same kind of store as mine, now are doing it as well but we were the ones that started it,” said Castaneda.
Castaneda already owns a perfume shop in Chicago and wanted to open another business closer to Plainfield where she lives. Because Castaneda and her family are Spanish, they were always looking for a place like Frozen Rainbow but the only places they could find were in Chicago.
“So, we were like you know what, we want to have something like this near home why don’t we just open one,” said Castaneda.
The family thought about opening the store in Bolingbrook originally but instead decided on what used to be a Cricket cell phone store in Joliet.
“It’s close to home,” said Castaneda. “My little brothers can come in and out whenever they want so that’s why I decided to do it here.”
The location was perfect for Castaneda but, previously being a cell phone store, it lacked plumbing. The process of getting plumbing took a few months, according to Castaneda.
Complications also came with the painting of the store which now has brightly colored walls and stickers of “Frozen” characters on it. Castaneda had no idea that painting was supposed to be the last step of opening a store. The family started painting and then began to throw paint at each other.
“It was like a war in here. The walls and windows were completely wet. We had a great time,” said Castaneda. “We started throwing rollers. It was…it was fun. Customers were driving and were like what the hell is going on in there.”
They also needed to name the store. Their name, Frozen Rainbow, came from Castaneda’s love for the movie “Frozen” and from her mother’s love of rainbows. So, they decided to combine the two.
The next step for Frozen Rainbow is to finish getting the rest of their permits so they can start serving an even wider variety of foods. Frozen Rainbow wants to start serving frozen yogurt along with seasonal tamales and sandwiches.
“If we waited for all the permits we weren’t going to open until next year so I was like, you know what, no,” said Castaneda. “Let’s open now so people can start seeing what we are doing and then we are going to get the permits little by little and then get the rest of the menu.”
Once the store is completely settled the family is planning on opening more locations.
To see some of their creations click here or follow them on Instagram at Frozenrainbow25
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