San Diego’s dessert scene just got a lot colder and a lot more personal. Veteran pastry chef Arely Chavez has stepped out from behind some of the city’s busiest restaurant kitchens to launch Amor, a small-batch ice-cream project rooted in Mexican flavors and border-town nostalgia.
Her new brand is quietly rolling through the city via limited pop-ups, and word is spreading fast about flavors like guava-lime, horchata and mamey. For Chavez, Amor doubles as a love letter to her heritage and a way to mentor the next generation of pastry cooks coming up behind her.
According to San Diego Magazine, Amor officially launched in 2025 and, for now, scoops are available only at scheduled pop-ups. Chavez announces dates and locations on Instagram, with neighborhood hosts already including Home Ec in Kensington and Morning Dew in Barrio Logan. The same report notes that she aims to grow the project through small Amor-branded mini freezers placed inside local coffee shops and boutiques.
From pastry kitchens to scoop counters
Chavez did not arrive at the ice-cream game out of nowhere. She has logged years in some of San Diego’s higher-profile kitchens, with stints at Born & Raised, Ironside and The Fishery before joining a baking collective in Bankers Hill.
Eater San Diego highlighted her role overseeing pastries at Michi Michi and pointed to her broader experience that spans Mexico City, Tijuana and San Diego, a cross-border resume that now shows up in her ice-cream tubs.
Flavors and inspiration
Amor’s early lineup leans hard into memory and regional comfort: guava-lime, horchata and mamey are already in rotation. Mamey, an orange-fleshed tropical fruit with a mango-like texture, sits alongside those other flavors as part of Chavez’s attempt to bottle the tastes of family tables and street-food stalls.
San Diego Magazine reports that Chavez completed the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s ice-cream program about six years ago, using that time to dial in recipes that echo the flavors she grew up with on both sides of the border.
Where and when
There is no permanent Amor scoop shop yet. Instead, Chavez is keeping things mobile, popping up in different neighborhoods and letting social media do the heavy lifting. Fans who want to catch the next drop are directed to follow @icecreamamor for the latest schedule and locations.
Alongside the pop-ups, Chavez plans to offer consulting to beginner pastry chefs in both the U.S. and Mexico and to roll out those mini freezers for retail once production and distribution are aligned.
Why it matters
Chavez’s strategy of testing bold, culturally rooted flavors through short-run neighborhood appearances lines up with a wider Southern California movement of chef-driven ice-cream makers using pop-ups as their proving ground. LAist has tracked that regional trend, and Amor’s cross-border sensibility gives this San Diego project a distinctly local twist.
