Jose Jacome is crafting a sweet legacy with Monarca Gourmet Paletas

Monarca isn’t your average ice cream spot. With two locations in Iowa, and inspired by a traditional Mexican treat, the shop delights customers by blending traditional flavors with fresh variations.

When Jose Jacome relocated to Des Moines, Iowa, in the early 2010s, he only expected to stay for a couple years. But now, he and his wife, Fatima Esparza, run the beloved local business Monarca Gourmet Paletas.

Although “paleta” has no direct English-language equivalent, Jacome says it’s like a popsicle or an ice cream bar with a dazzling variety of fixings and toppings. The treat originated in Mexico, and Monarca builds on that legacy, featuring traditional fruit-based flavors—including passion fruit, Jacome’s favorite—alongside more modern ice cream bases. When they opened the store in 2010, Jacome says, he and Esparza hoped “to bring people together and learn about tradition.”

Born and raised in Colombia, Jacome spent most of his life in Chicago—the city he thought he’d always call home. When he got the chance to move to Des Moines through his old job, he packed his things. He thought he'd return to Chicago after a few years. Instead, he fell in love with his new hometown, and now, he spends his days delivering exciting new experiences to a hungry, loyal customer base.

What's a paleta, and how did you come into this business?

It doesn't necessarily have a direct translation, so think of it as a popsicle. A frozen novelty or ice cream on a stick. It started with fresh fruit flavors, and as it gained popularity, it evolved to more flavors that included ice cream bases and others. At Monarca, we have over 20 different flavors at any given time, from a multitude of fruit-based flavors to ice cream-based flavors like Oreo, Fruity Pebbles, and Reese's that a lot of folks are familiar with. We just did Dubai chocolate about a month ago, and folks really loved it.  

Growing up, I don't think I would've ever envisioned myself being in the ice cream business. My business partner grew up making ice cream with her parents, who have a family-owned ice cream shop in Chicago. In Iowa, you don't see a lot of businesses that sell paletas. She wanted to share those family recipes and continue that tradition. So she had a passion for ice cream, and I had a corporate background, sales experience, and a passion for branding and the customer experience. 

How has being a Latino business owner shaped your role locally?

I think it's pride. Having an opportunity to showcase something new, something different, helps me feel like I'm contributing. Our community here in Waukee and Clive, and the greater Des Moines area, is growing like crazy. For us to be a part of that growth feels fantastic.

As we [developed] different ideas of what this could‌ look like, we landed on opening an ice cream shop to bring people together and learn about tradition, and also to share different flavors, share an experience. When you walk into our store, we ask if you've ever heard of a paleta. We explain that paletas started in Mexico, show you the flavors and the different varieties, and then take you through a customization experience. 

Our slogan is “the art of ice cream,” and we like to think about the customer walking in and creating a work of art that they can eat. It’s more than your typical ice cream experience.

From day one, you had an accounting team helping you with this business. Why was that important to you?

It comes down to not knowing what you don't know. It's easy to get caught up in thinking, “I can do everything,” but there's not enough time in the day. And if you do end up doing everything, then you have no life.

Having a relationship with your accountant, whether it's a close relationship or you're just leveraging them as a resource, saves you time, money, and a lot of energy—and it really helps you avoid making mistakes. It can be as simple as asking, “Hey, I'm thinking about taxes. I want to do the right thing. What's the best way that I can go about that?”

What’s been your learning experience as a business, and how did you channel it into growth?

The biggest challenge for us is that we make everything in small batches and from scratch. At our original Clive location, we were limited with our back-of-house and how much product we were able to make on any given day, and also how much product we could store. Because of that, we stayed away from doing offsite events, but when somebody invited us to attend the Latino Heritage Festival, we said, why not? Let's do it. 

We spent days getting ready and making a whole bunch of product for this festival, and sure enough, we showed up on Saturday and we sold out. Now it's 10:00 PM on a Saturday and we don't have product to sell on Sunday because we don't have enough to supply our store and the festival. So at 10:30 PM, we had to pick everything back up, go to the store, and spend the next few hours making ice cream knowing that we had to be back at that festival at 8:00 AM. I found myself sitting on the couch of our store getting ready to take a nap and thinking, “This is not feasible. If we ever want to grow this business, we need to expand our operation.” That's when the idea for the Waukee store started, and that's why this location and production space are a lot bigger than the first one.

How did you navigate the financial side of expanding into a new location?

It was about understanding our numbers. It's easy to get excited about a plan, but you have to pause and think, “Do the numbers match? What steps do we need to take to be financially solid?” Because nothing's guaranteed.

We also have two accountants, Ann and Brian. Ann helps us navigate the day-to-day operations, and Brian does a lot of the bookkeeping. It's been highly beneficial to hear examples from other businesses that have gone through similar journeys because it allows us to avoid mistakes and make quicker decisions.

The Waukee location didn't necessarily pick up right out of the gate. We had a two-year delay in construction and opened in the winter, so we missed the whole summer. Had it not been for those financial-planning conversations and tools, we would've been in a tough spot. 

How does QuickBooks streamline business planning for you and your accountants?

Being able to give access to my accountant so they can see absolutely everything is fantastic. I know folks who have to manually send everything in. It's great to have one solution where my accountant can process payroll, or process paperwork for a new hire and set up direct deposit. I don't have to worry about any of that.

We also have visibility into trends with a snapshot of the last couple years so we can see how this summer is faring against past summers and forecast what we can expect this winter. Intuit QuickBooks allows me to have better conversations with my staff when we think about marketing, or launching a new product or a new flavor. It allows us to see what's working, when it’s working, and when it's not.

What does it mean to you to share your heritage and those flavors that you love with people here in Iowa?

I have an opportunity to not only do what I love, but more than selling ice cream, I have an opportunity to take a customer through a journey. I have an opportunity to showcase and experiment with flavors that you don’t typically find in the Midwest. For example, I'm a huge passion fruit guy, and that's really popular in Colombia and in the Caribbean. We source a lot of our passion fruit from Florida, but you wouldn't be able to find it here. 

I'm a creative guy. I love marketing. I love branding. I like throwing things on the wall and seeing what sticks. And when you get to do that with really good flavors and really good product, it's fantastic.