Whether you know about Las Paletas or not, the obvious thing to do about them is to go and eat them. Well, if you don’t know what they are then you might be wondering why you should go and eat them, especially since “paleta” literally translated means “little shovel” or “trowel”. Paletas are popsicles.
When I first came to Nashville, I had some friends who introduced me to one of the best things in Nashville: Las Paletas. They sell gourmet mexican popsicles in numerous original and unique flavors such as plum, hibiscus, tamarind, avocado, basil, coconut, blueberry chocolate chip, rice, chocolate with jalapeno’s, and a myriad of others.
You might be saying to yourself “So what, they’re just popsicles”. This is the very thing I said to myself. I was never really into popsicles, I mean we all had them growing up but you know they never really “did it” for me. Real food just tastes so much better than artificial. So all the artificial flavorings and colorings in the usual popsicle just doesn’t cut it anymore. There are many places to get paletas but many of them use cheap ingredients or pre-packaged mixes and not real fresh fruit. You can definitely taste the difference… well, I can… you may have to practice a bit.
Not only are the popsicles great but so are the people. When you head over to Las Paletas you may meet Norma, Irma, Alma, Amy, Jessica, and… that is all I know of, but there may be more. Like maybe you will meet Peter, who is a huge Las Paletas fan and ended up being there almost every time I was for a while. Many of the times I have gone to the store Amy has been working, so tell her “Tim says hi”. She will probably be like “who?” and act aloof like she doesn’t know me or something.
Las Paletas has no sign and their website is not very informative so I will make sure and give you some details here so you can bookmark this very vital information.
Store hours are Tuesday-Saturday 12-6pm, except during winter months the hours are Tuesday-Saturday 12-5pm… I found this out by making my usual 5:45 run one day and they were closed. I was not happy. Since there is no sign outside it can be hard to find… but only the first time you go, because after that you won’t forget it. Just in case, remember that it is on the northwest corner of 12th Ave S and Kirkwood. You can also just google their address:  2907 12th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37204.
