NYC: Three Hidden Gems Where You Can Get Paletas This Summer

Photo: Aaron Stein Chester

It was a slow start, but the hot, sticky, miserable-without-an-air-conditioner NYC summer has finally arrived. Luckily we’ve got the intel on the good frozen treat spots.  Paletas — Mexican popsicles made with real fresh fruit (no high fructose corn syrup!) — are a win no matter how you look at them: they’re cold and refreshing, they satisfy your sweet-tooth, and they’re healthy enough that you could eat three in one sitting and still fit comfortably in your jorts. Here are three NYC hidden gems where you can get some #rare paletas:

Tulcingo Deli Grocery

Photo via Serious Eats

This nondescript Bushwick deli is stocked with tons of paleta flavors you rarely see in NYC, like tart but sweet nance fruit, creamy mamey, super sweet grosella, and even rompope, a flavor reminiscent of egg nog. At $1.50 a pop, you can try all of them and still have money leftover for a metrocard (does anyone else ride the subway sometimes just for the AC?).

Sley Deli and Grocery

Paletas are a family thing at this Borough Park bodega. Its owner, Simon Leyba, used to work in his family’s Puebla paletería, and he brought his traditional techniques to BK, where his family now makes paletas in-house and supplies them to over 100 other establishments. Stuffed in a freezer in the back of Sley you can find over 30 flavors of paletas, including horchata, mango con chile, and coconut.

La Newyorkina

This is probably the best-known of the bunch — we’ve been fans of La NewYorkina‘s unconventional paleta flavors (like avocado, queso fresco y fresas, and nieve de jalapeño!) for several years now. But while you may be familiar with Fany Gerson’s carts — or even her stand at Smorgasburg — you may not know that she recently opened a tiendita that runs out of her Red Hook production kitchen. The small spot has no real storefront, which is why Gerson jokingly has referred to it as “sort of a paleta speakeasy.” You can get her signature paletas there on Saturdays and Sundays all summer long, as well as her delicious ice creams. And when the weather gets colder, Gerson will be selling her line of Mexican sweets.

61 Commerce St. between Van Brunt and Richard
Red Hook, Brooklyn
(917) 669–4591].
Saturdays and Sundays, 1–5 pm.