Meet the Philadelphian Bringing Water Ice to Disneyland

Happy Ice ribbon cutting at Downtown Disney / Photography courtesy of Downtown Disney District

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You might not think “Philly” when you think “Disneyland.” But this summer, West Philly native Lemier Mitchell brought a very Philly treat to the House of Mouse when he opened Happy Ice, the first Black-owned dessert shop at the Downtown Disney complex in Orange County, California. His water ice store sits right alongside big shots like Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants and huge quick-service names like Starbucks and Salt & Straw ice cream.

It’s a pretty spectacular landing spot for a business that was never meant to become a business.

“That was not what Los Angeles [was supposed to have] had in store for me,” says Mitchell, 34 years old. “It was supposed to be a side investment.”

Mitchell launched Happy Ice in L.A. as a food truck in 2017, after craving the sweet treat he couldn’t find there, and encouragement from his mom finally pushed him to go all in. “I lost my fear,” he said. “That was the belief I needed, from somebody else that was close to me, that made it all really happen. The next day I got the trademark and started working on it.”

Mitchell traveled back home and learned the water-ice trade at Fred’s Water Ice in West Philly — everything from getting the texture right to mastering the scoop, skills he’s now known for. When his apprenticeship ended, Fred’s sold him a freezing barrel and syrups for just $6,000 (secondhand commercial machines usually run upwards of $35,000), which was all he needed to get started.

Mitchell shipped it all — along with a food truck and freezer — to Los Angeles, where he launched what would become the bright blue Happy Ice brick-and-mortar shop on Melrose Avenue. The frozen treat quickly became known for its neon colors, punchy flavor combinations, and celebrity customers (including Angelina Jolie). The clientele was so supportive that Mitchell eventually expanded his business to include three stores, including the Disneyland location.

And while partnering with Disney is a dream come true for Mitchell, Happy Ice’s success is rooted in the Philly artistry and grit that shaped his journey — a story he shares in his own words below.

My name is … Lemier Mitchell, owner of Happy Ice, the water ice shop in Los Angeles and Disneyland.

I grew up in … West Philly. I was born at 52nd and Hazel.

My first job was … a tattoo artist in Philly. I decided I wanted to compete with the best in the world, and all of the best tattoo artists in the world were in California. I started to travel to California to learn about it.

The day I got the idea for Happy Ice … I was at lunch in L.A. and there was a food truck on the corner. It was the nicest food truck I’ve seen to this day. When I walked up, I noticed that it wasn’t a food truck; it was basically a liquid nitrogen ice cream truck. Like, a super dope, old-school trailer. I was already so sad because I couldn’t find Philly water ice anywhere, and it was just unbelievable to me. People like shaved ice, but nobody knew about Philly water ice — this makes no sense! Literally at that moment, I was like, “What if I did Philly water ice out of a truck like this?”

What makes Happy Ice different is … we focus on combination flavors. In Philly, you order a cup of lemon, right? Or a whole cup of cherry. That’s normal. But we make combinations — like our Summer Time, which is mango, strawberry, and watermelon — and we scoop it to show the flavor’s stripes. A new combination we launched this year is the Cloud Nine, a mixture of lime, watermelon, blue raspberry, and pineapple — and it is phenomenal.

The most surprising thing about opening a water ice shop in Los Angeles is … I have to explain what water ice is to people all the time. They don’t have a clue. I tell people, imagine if ice cream, sorbet, and shaved ice came together and had a child, but it was dairy-free. It’s smooth, but not thick. And we’re set up for sampling.

The best trick I learned about selling water ice was … learning how to scoop. We have a flavor called the Rainbow Rocket, and we scoop it so that it actually looks like a rainbow, with all the flavors layered and looking super cool. First, I was getting those stripes by accident, and I thought, How do I get these stripes every single time? Once I learned how to do that, that cup started going viral. And so that was a big moment.

The Los Angeles inspiration I’m bringing to Philly water ice is … About 70 percent of our menu is all-natural, and by the end of 2026, every flavor that you can possibly get at Happy Ice will be all-natural. Every competitor I’ve researched uses corn syrup, dyes, and different food colorings, all the things that parents that are more health conscious [avoid] now — like I am myself: I have two daughters. But because nobody cared about that in Philly, I never thought to research it.

The most L.A. thing that has happened at Happy Ice was … Angelina Jolie is one of those A-list celebrities that you just don’t have a lot of sightings of, but she came to our truck with her two children. She ordered a lemon ice and a pretzel. We didn’t get a photo, but paparazzi got her in front of the truck eating the pretzel with her two kids eating their Happy Ice.

The most interesting thing about opening a shop at Disneyland … Is learning the Disney way to do service. The thing that’s so amazing is, I started to read all these books about Disney like Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service, and just learning about the engine, the way they think, and [right after that, in] April 2021, Disney called me. [The guy from Disney] was like, “Hey, what if you just come for a pop up at Downtown Disney?” And I’m like, “Heck yeah!” I learned how they tell people directions. I learned about how they build out spaces, how they always have a centerpiece, so people know to go to a certain point in the park. I was just super excited about all the stuff I learned about the Disney way of doing things [during the pop-ups].

The future of Happy Ice looks like … I’m gonna be able to sleep very good at night, when I have 1,000 franchised locations, knowing people are consuming real ingredients and not super-processed products.

When you visit Los Angeles, definitely order … our banana pudding Joylati. We make banana ice from scratch; we peel bananas, blend them, puree it, and make an all-natural banana ice. It is insanely good. We make a banana pudding in-house. We layer banana pudding, our house-made vanilla ice cream, the banana ice, Nilla Wafer crumbles, and banana chunks. It is off-the-charts addictive and is one of the most popular items at all our locations.

The thing I miss most about Philadelphia … is getting water ice that isn’t mine. The humidity in the summer and being out at 10 p.m. at night with a pretzel and an ice.  I miss block party cookouts, and I miss the connection of the city. There’s a deep connection we all have with each other. Out here it’s super ambitious. It’s all about doing it bigger and bigger and bigger. And I miss the love and organic relationships in Philly.