Houstonians buy Underground Creamery’s ice cream in seconds

Word of mouth

DeLeon, 31, was born in the Philippines and moved to Houston when he was 10 years old.

He launched his Instagram Eats Gone Wild after finding his vice during a weightlifting competition: junk food. Eventually, those cravings turned to ice cream, and he started reviewing different varieties online.

“There’s a time when you have hundreds of pints, you just want to do it yourself,” he said. “I kind of created my own dreamy flavors and shared them on Eats Gone Wild.”

At first, DeLeon made his ice cream in his apartment and sold it to friends and family. Word got around, however, and “friends and family” became Insta groupies and ice cream lovers.

“I had a Google doc where I post my inventory of what I’ve done. It would be empty throughout the week but I’d update it. Once I updated it, people would contact me on Instagram and whoever messaged me first would get it.

Texas Cottage Law is pretty clear about the types of foods you can make and sell — and ice cream isn’t on the list. But DeLeon had to start somewhere, so everything was kept “down” for a while.

He didn’t realize how big his ice cream business had grown until he popped up in Sugar Land.

“When you’re in your Insta bubble, you don’t know how many people want to try your stuff,” he said. “There was a line wrapped around the building.”

But the second pop-up was when the health department came knocking on the door.

“Anyone can file a complaint with the health service. Guess I pissed someone off when they did.

Soon after, DeLeon incorporated and formed Underground Creamery. Now needing a place to make ice cream properly, he scored a shared kitchen space with Tatemó in the old Black Labrador near Montrose Boulevard.

Ice cream for some, not all

Underground has now teamed up with Pudgy’s Fine Cookies on a shared space up high. Customers who are quick enough to pre-order a pint when DeLeon posts on social media can pick it up from a drive-thru window.

DeLeon says his vice of junk food in college translated to ice cream quite close to his customers. One of his popular pints was peanut butter ice cream with chocolate covered potato chips and marshmallow fluff. He even reinvented a Little Debbie cream pie flavor.

DeLeon quit his job as a Southwest Airlines ramp agent in October, so Underground Creamery is his full-time job. While he is excited about the future of the business, he is also hesitant to see quality drop if production increases.

“The e-commerce model is in place, so why have another source of income when I’m still selling,” DeLeon said. “Owning an ice cream shop takes a lot of overhead. Until I figure out how to get more quality ice cream to people, that’s going to be it.

“There’s an idea that ice cream should be for everyone. But with any other food that has real quality, it doesn’t have to be for the masses either.”

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