Tracy's Popular Gas-Station Filipino Dessert Shop Is Moving

When Ellis Creamery first opened in 2021, the Filipino dessert shop formerly hidden at the back of a Tracy gas station didn’t necessarily expect to become a Bay Area internet sensation.

After all, the shop had modest beginnings: Filipina immigrant Marie Rabut juggled a full-time job in healthcare while baking and selling traditional island desserts from her home during the pandemic. One year later, her husband Khristian left his role as a consultant and bought a pre-existing dessert shop inside a local gas station to give Marie’s baked goods an unlikely brick-and-mortar outlet. They kept the shop’s name, Ellis Creamery, and went on to achieve viral fandom.

Customers have driven from all over Northern California to taste the couple’s delicious, homestyle Pinoy treats: heavenly ice cream scoops of Oreo-infused Ube Cookies and Cream; halo-halo topped with crushed meringue; buttercream silvanas; gargantuan ensaymadas and more. On its busiest days, the lines inside National Petroleum’s convenience shop would wrap around from the back counter through the front door.

Now, though, Ellis Creamery’s fairytale popularity inside a suburban gas station is entering a new chapter — and a new location.

In late February 2024, the gas station’s owner informed the Rabuts that a cannabis dispensary was moving in. It meant Ellis Creamery would either have to significantly downsize their operations to make room, or else find a new location. The Filipino dessert makers reasoned that it would be better to find a new location rather than squeeze themselves further into the back corner of an already crowded space.

“Dispensary business is big money and we’re a small fry,” Khristian Rabut says. “They offered us to stay with a smaller counter, but I didn’t think that would work.”

As part of their month-to-month agreement, Ellis Creamery agreed to vacate the gas station in the first week of March.

Later this summer, Marie and Khristian plan to reopen inside a Tracy storefront that formerly housed a taco shop. Though the 10-year lease for the new location is significantly more expensive, the couple plans to utilize their new digs in a way that the small gas station’s back kitchen — a former Subway — didn’t allow.

“We’re thinking of adding a popular coffee bread from the Philippines [kopi roti] and traditional rice cakes,” Khristian says. “We also can serve cakes every day; we can have slices of cakes to eat with coffee, lemonade, fruit teas. Our plan is to have limited seating with a place for [patrons] to enjoy the food.”

Khristian also rattles off ideas about shortbreads, lengua de gato (Filipino butter cookies) and uraro (cookies made from arrowroot flour). Such breakfast treats and beverages weren’t previously on offer inside the gas station due to limited space and lack of proper appliances, he tells me. They also never had seating available — until now. Though somewhat forced into the business expansion, the Rabuts are excited for the opportunity to continue serving the community and provide the area’s only full-blown Filipino cafe.

“We’re thankful for our staff and customers,” Marie says. “They have been very supportive, and are waiting for us [to open the new location].”

In order to make ends meet, the humble dessert makers have launched a crowdfunding campaign (which includes sweet treats in exchange for those who are able to contribute), while previous plans of expanding to San Jose have been put on pause for the time being. In the meantime, fans of Ellis Creamery can find their limited offerings at various outlets in Tracy — including Tracy Harbour Fish and Chips, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue and Bambu Dessert Drinks — as well as Groundstack Coffee in Stockton.