Ronald Sanchez Jr., ice cream truck owner

It’s something we’ve all—at one time or another—screamed for. And with as hot as Sacramento summers can get, sometimes you need to chill out and cool down. To do just that, SN&R caught up with Ronald Sanchez Jr., owner of Mr. Sancho’s Ice Cream, a local ice cream truck. We chatted about everything from the most popular ice cream flavors, car shows, how to keep ice cream cold and why insanely hot weather isn’t actually the most popular time for ice cream.

How long has Mr. Sancho’s Ice Cream been around?

Mr. Sancho’s Ice Cream has been in business now for six years.

Do you do shows and events year-round, or is it just during the summer months?

Yeah, we just do stuff during the summer months. Our business will start up probably the end of March, and we’ll go until like the end of October. So we do shut down for a few months, probably like five months. That’s more of a seasonal thing, and majority of our business is car shows or music festivals or something along those lines.

If it’s hotter out, do people buy more ice cream?

I think it’s opposite. When it’s too hot, I don’t think people buy as much ice cream. So it’s kind of weird. It’s just, to me, it’s opposite. When it’s really hot, not too many people buy ice cream. But when it’s, you know, regular to a little bit colder, ice cream does good then.

What made you decide to open an ice cream truck?

What caused me to open up an ice cream truck and business was I spent a lot of time at car shows and festivals and I figured this would be a good way to still attend them, spend the day and make a living, or partial living, off the ice cream truck business.

Are you a big car show fan?

Yes, I am. We have a few cars that we show. So we’re at car shows all day long. And that’s how we came up with the idea.

What type of classic cars are you into?

I have a 1962 Chevy Impala that I keep, it’s just all original. And then my daughter does the muscles cars. She’s into Chargers. So we rep both of those cars, take them both to shows. We’re into muscles cars and we’re into classic cars.

What’s the process like for opening a truck?

The first thing you need to do is find your truck. Then you have to go to the county of Sacramento—that’s where I live, so I go through the county of Sacramento—and I have to meet all their regulations and guidelines on the truck. Dimensions. The height. My equipment that’s located in the truck. All the safety aspects of the truck have to be met through Sacramento County. And once they approve my truck then they issue us a yearly sticker which gives us the opportunity to sell ice cream.

What’s your most popular flavor?

You know, of course, we have a cookies and cream inside of a cup and that’s like our best seller all the time, like, all year long.

Who did the design and decoration for your truck?

I came up with the process in my head of what I want the ice cream truck to look like. I went to another friend of mine who designs wraps and I kind of told him what I wanted, and he came up with the design. Then another buddy of mine installed the wrap onto the vehicle.

With the truck, how do you keep the ice cream cold?

We have a freezer inside the ice cream truck. And I have—it’s called an inverter—which, when the truck’s running, it keeps the freezer going. And it’s just a commercial ice cream freezer. And like I said, when the truck’s running, the inverter keeps it [charged]. But if we’re at an event, the truck’s off for like eight to 10 hours, then I have a generator that I would run next to the truck which will keep the freezer going.

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?

My favorite flavor would have to be strawberry shortcake.

Do you just have the one truck?

We have one truck. But we also have another business that goes with it, it’s called Mr. Sahcho’s and More. And basically that’s a 10-by-10 tent, like a food tent. We specialize in lemonade, soda, water, nachos, that type of stuff comes out of there. So they actually butt up together. I’ll have the truck and I’ll have the tent, and it’s, it’s run by all family. It’s run by wife, my kids and my niece. Those are the main workers, you know, and we go to events and we set up the truck and we set up the tent and like I said, it’s a family business and that’s kind of what we do.