Priciliano Mateo has proven to be quite the palata maven, with multiple Mateo’s Ice Cream & Fruit Bars locations scattered throughout Los Angeles, and certainly one of the city’s largest popsicle varieties. Expansion has clearly served Mateo well, and near the corner of Pico & Crenshaw, he’s also upgraded since my early visits. He dropped the Y in Fruity, moved across the parking lot and made the decor, well, more palatable. That includes more space, fruit-forward furniture and a display case that eschews stacks of plastic bags in favor of rows of colorful, upright popsicles, which appear for the first time with clear labeling. It was tough to choose from the dozens of milk and ice-based paletas, but I selected Guayaba ($1.75), a pink guava popsicle that suspended big chunks of frozen fruit in flavorful ice like amber.
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