Inspiring Conversations with Tim And Lauren York of Neon Palm Ice

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim And Lauren York.

Hi Tim and Lauren, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We started Neon Palm Ice after a road trip to Lauren’s hometown of Philadelphia where she introduced Tim to Italian Ice for the first time.
We knew we wanted to start a business and that trip sparked an idea that led us to building what Neon Palm is today.

Tim has a craft cocktail background, and Lauren is a designer, so we naturally approached it from two different perspectives: Tim cared deeply about the flavor and craft, and Lauren cared about the branding and visual experience.

In 2018, we built our first custom Italian ice cart and spent a short summer selling in Kansas City where we lived at the time. It was a great way to test our concept in a city that had never really heard of Italian Ice before. Shortly after, we moved to Redding, California to be closer to Lauren’s family.

It took some time but in 2020, during the pandemic, we started experimenting with recipes and flavors. Tim focused on making elevated flavors using only real fruit that felt fresh and different from the “syrupy” flavors we all grew up with. Lauren focused on packaging and posting on social media. Since everything was shut down, we started selling pints online and doing local deliveries in Redding, and it quickly gained popularity.

Eventually, we moved from just delivering pints to serving from the custom cart, and then we built out what has become our iconic pink trailer. We spent the next several years growing Neon Palm in Redding selling at a the local food truck park and booking private events.

We learned a lot over a few years—from developing recipes and figuring out production, to branding, marketing, events, and actually serving every single scoop. We loved our time in a small town, but we knew we needed to bring Neon Palm to a bigger market.

After a brief year and half detour in Kansas City, we came back to California, but this time to Los Angeles.

We’re thrilled to be in LA and have our Italian Ice be among such an incredible food scene. Our weekly popups include Atwater Village Farmers Market, LA River Farmers Market, and Echo Park Farmers Market, but follow us to see where else we might popping up.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Entrepreneurship is a wild ride! There have definitely been bumps in the road as we have had to build this business from the ground up. There are always challenges but one of the biggest for us has been production. Since we only use fresh ingredients, it’s a tedious process to make our product. From sourcing all the ingredients weekly to working out of a commercial kitchen, making each recipe from scratch, and storing our product, there are alot of moving parts! It’s required a ton of pivoting, DIY’ing, being flexible, and wearing all the hats, while also creating sustainable systems and processes. Tim is the “just do it” person, and Lauren is all about efficiency, and luckily, we work really well together and our unique strengths are what has made Neon Palm what it is today.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Neon Palm is a real fruit Italian Ice brand! We don’t use anything artificial – no dyes, gums, or fillers- in any of our recipes. We only use real fruit, organic cane sugar, and purified water, which is what sets us apart. We also love creating new and distinct flavors that are more complex and surprising, like our Blackberry Lemon Mint or Tropical Italian Ice. Even our traditional Lemon Ice feels nostalgic yet balanced and something you won’t soon forget.

We’re the most proud of the fact that we get to serve a product that we created, from a pink trailer that we designed. And that we get to bring a smile, a new experience, and a genuine conversation to each person along the way.

We love a good party and are available for events of all kinds! Come visit us and follow along @neonpalmice

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
We always have a good playlist going, usually along the lines of 70’s folk, Khruangbin, or the Strokes. We also love listening to “How I Built This” with Guy Raz, very motivational and inspiring. We are both artists and foodies, so taking breaks and enjoying a good meal, getting in nature, and hanging with friends is the best resource for us to live our best lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.neonpalmice.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neonpalmice

Image Credits
Grace Davis took the photo with all of the people in line