The bright jingle of an ice cream truck winding down a street – complete with scoopers in red aprons and paper hats – aims to pull kids out of backyards and adults back into childhood.

“We’re not just trying to sell ice cream. We’re trying to give you a memory back,” said Thundercats Ice Cream co-owner Ricardo Espinoza Jr. “People will say, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t had this since I was a kid.’ Bringing memories back is our biggest reward.”

The 23-year-old opened and grew the Thundercats fleet with his father, Ricardo Espinoza Sr., and assisted by other family members, all the way down to 14-year-old Renatto Espinoza, an incoming high school freshman who squeezes in shifts between other commitments for school and sports.

Relentless work ethic

Through long hours and a powerful work ethic, the family has grown their business from just one truck to four in three seasons.

Their relentless hard work may be the secret sauce. “Stopping is not an option for me,” Espinoza Jr. said. “I don’t want to stop; I can’t stop.”

He’s also a self-proclaimed perfectionist: “I like getting things done correctly because it makes me feel good. I want to look back at my job and say, ‘I did that and it was done well.’”

Thundercats trucks operate six days a week throughout the Tri-Cities, taking Mondays off for maintenance, inventory and family time. They’re on the road from early spring through late October, with peak season bringing the most daylight and the most demand.

“A day around 17 or 18 hours is required,” Espinoza Jr. said. “I am young, so I don’t have an issue working 15, 16, 17 or more hours a day, seven days a week. I generally don’t have a problem with that. It may seem like a lot, but it’s required.”

The moneymakers

Based in Prosser, Espinoza Jr. has just enough time to hit the gym before starting work – planning the day, filing paperwork, loading product, scooping cones, counting sales, paying taxes, prepping the next day and doing a little market research before calling it quits after midnight only to restart it all again before sunrise.

Big, white trucks with bold red stripes fan out across roughly 40 designated and researched routes – the proven moneymakers – covering neighborhoods throughout the Tri‑Cities, all built through trial and error.

“Over the course of the years, we’ve gone to different areas, risking whether they were good areas or not,” Espinoza Jr. said. “The ones that are good, we save them, and then we just put them into our schedule.”

This was how they ended up selling exclusively in the Tri-Cities as it was – after starting in their hometown of Prosser. The Espinozas realized the Tri‑Cities had room for a new player. “We didn’t see any ice cream trucks here, so we just decided to get the permits here. We came, and it was great. There were a lot more areas to be in, and it’s just rolled over ever since,” Espinoza Jr. said.

Setting up shop in one spot

While driving around playing music is the traditional ice cream truck style, the Thundercats team prefers doing events where they’re parked in one spot and the customers come to them – no need to burn fuel seeking out sales.

This was the case on a warm Saturday in late June at the fields operated by Kennewick American Youth Baseball where Renatto, worked the window – taking orders and accepting payments – while Ricardo scooped.

Organizations can book a Thundercats appearance for a $150 fee. The trucks are known for their oversized portions – something customers repeatedly commented on as they received their treats.

Blaize Ortiz proudly shows off his two-scoop waffle cone from Thundercats at the Kennewick American Youth Baseball fields.

| Photo by Robin Wojtanik

One of the first patrons of the day during the baseball tournament was well-familiar with the Thundercats model and ice cream volume.

“Every time we hear him on our street, we come out; they can never eat it all,” said one Kennewick woman who bought a two-scoop waffle cone for her young baseball player, Blaize Ortiz, for $6.

Another customer simply exclaimed, “That’s huge,” when receiving her order.

A few out-of-towners unfamiliar with the menu opted for ice cream bowls for $8, likely expecting to receive a paper bowl versus a cone, but instead got three scoops in a waffle bowl nearly as large as most kids’ heads.

A simple menu

The Espinozas keep the menu intentionally simple: eight hand‑scooped flavors plus popsicles and even stock Frosty Paws – a frozen treat for dogs.

“I wanted it to be very simple,” Espinoza Jr. said. “Everybody knows the basics, so we did chocolate, strawberry, vanilla. And everybody loves cookies and cream, so we got that. Then cotton candy and bubble gum for sweet cravings and mocha and maple nut for the parents.”

Each truck goes through a few tubs per day that each hold three gallons – with about 50-60 cones created per tub.

“It’s usually about seven to eight gallons of ice cream per truck,” Espinoza said, who said it’s a profitable venture that has made it so his off-season trucking career is only optional. “Sixty percent goes toward product, diesel, expanding and maintenance, and 40% is profit.”

Thundercats had already raised prices before the 2026 season began, so the most recent increase in fuel costs has just been something they have absorbed.

There are also a lot of expenditures connected to running a rolling dessert shop, including extensive insurance policies, especially with children running toward the truck.

“You have to have business insurance, insurance for the kids’ safety, the truck, the products, the freezers, everything electrical,” Espinoza Jr. said.

Serious about safety

Espinoza Jr. said he takes safety seriously. “I always drive super slow – less than two miles an hour,” he said. “The truck is pretty big so people can see me coming. I have lights vibrating all the time,” not to mention the loud music.

On extremely hot days the trucks stay parked.

“Usually when it’s above 100 degrees, we don’t sell. It’s too hot for us and people don’t want to come out,” Renatto said.

Since days like that can keep them off the road and there are limited months of the year for sales, the Espinozas don’t just work an event and call it quits – on the day of the baseball tournament, the brothers still went out after the games concluded and sold ice cream until it got dark.

“I love serving ice cream. I love it,” Espinoza Jr. said.

It’s a frequent refrain he shares about his business. “It’s a genuine pleasure to do this and I like being in motion all the time. I feel sick; I feel clogged if I stop, so it’s not something I can do.”

Despite the long hours and the nonstop pace, Espinoza Jr.’s enthusiasm hasn’t dimmed as he hinted at expansion. “There will be more trucks, more events and more fun things coming.”

And, there’s never a dull moment when you’re doing what you love while operating a memory machine.

“The fact that you can come up to us and sort of step back, even for a little bit, and you can enjoy something that reignites a memory – that is our main focus and our biggest payment,” he said.

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