Audio By Carbonatix
I bet the attendees of the May 22 Homegrown Festival thought they were pretty freaking special. Not only did they listen to a day full of awesome local music, but they also got to enjoy the icy deliciousness of La Grange‘s top-notch sno-cone machine, carted down the block for the event. The rest of us, however, were stranded in Deep Ellum with nary a cone in sight. It was a cruel, cruel evening — I had to drink several whiskeys just to forget about my painful misfortune.
However, if all goes according to La Grange proprietor Stephanie Schumacher’s plan, her scrumptious (and rummy, if that’s your thing) sno-cones will be available not only at 32 Degrees, the Elm Street window at which she will soon be dishing out the syrupy snacks, but all around the city at a number of sno-cone franchises. A girl can and does dream.
Schumacher, a Lakewood resident, wanted a convenient, ice-cold snack a la the food trailers of Austin, but couldn’t find anything in Dallas. “We had to drive to Garland, Addison, wherever,” she complains.
A trip to Maui left her craving the shaved ice she’d had there, especially in these magic blue cups that prevented sno-cone drippage. But Lakewood didn’t have much available space at the right price. She later opened La Grange, and when the bar took over the restaurant space next door, she knew her sno-cone dreams had been defrosted. “We want to make Deep Ellum the headquarters, with our sights set on the State Fair,” said Schumacher. For now, the sno-cones are available behind the bar at La Grange, but by June 12, Schumacher says the 32 Degrees window will be open, and a sponsorship deal with Cruzan rum will give customers the opportunity to booze up their conage. Branding the cones as “32 Degrees” was especially important to Schumacher, to preserve both the La Grange name and give the sno-cones some independent legs to stand on around town. “I just felt like it needed to be branded in order to be sold properly. We can’t just say come to the ice place La Grange.”
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Here’s hoping Schumacher ends up the Sno-Queen of Dallas — anyone who’s had a ‘cone at La Grange lately knows it’s a definite possibility.
