New Orleans SnoBall Café Throws Birthday Bash

Opening a seasonal business in a recession didn’t daunt Victoria Sanders and Jared Scanlon.

In fact, a year after opening the New Orleans SnoBall Café in Decatur, the University of Georgia graduates are celebrating with a birthday party. The June 23 event will feature Kayla Taylor’s jazz ensemble, free samples and giveaways starting at 6 p.m.

“We’re doing fantastic,” said Sanders, who is also a real estate agent and a former ballroom dance instructor. “We’re looking for a second location.”

The café's co-owners are native New Orleanians who dreamed up the concept of the café as a business school project at UGA. 

“We had to create the perfect business,” says Sanders. When the real estate market soured, Sanders revived her business plan and recruited Scanlon to create the New Orleans SnoBall Café. 

Snowball stands are as common as crawfish in New Orleans.  Unlike the rough, grainy ice served in snow cones elsewhere, a true New Orleans snowball features finely crushed ice that is so powdery it soaks up flavored syrup.

The Decatur shop kicks it up a notch by offering stuffed snowballs, with ice cream inside the snow.  The café offers 50 flavors, including some popular in New Orleans – spearmint, nectar, lime--and original and sugar-free flavors found only in Decatur, such as agave or  lemoncello, made from fresh-squeezed lemons. The homemade café’ au lait is  the ultimate iced coffee experience, featuring concentrated French Market coffee and chicory with cream. Mississippi mud mixes chocolate and wedding cake flavors.

This summer, the shop introduces the TeaBall, brewed tea over shaved ice sweetened with any flavor such as peach, mango, spearmint or lemoncello.

As in New Orleans, you can get your snowball with a shot of condensed milk, or get some fresh mango, strawberry or peach topping. For those with an incurable sweet tooth, the café offers cupcakes in snowball flavors along with what they call “the best cup of coffee in Decatur.” The cash-only store has an ATM.

Anyone longing for an authentic taste of New Orleans will find them at this Decatur storefront, which also sells Barq’s Red Crème Soda or root beer, Zapp’s thick-cut, flavored potato chips and an authentic olive mix from the French Quarter’s Central Grocery. That store was birthplace of a meat and cheese sandwich called the muffuletta. The Decatur café also serves a version of the muffuletta, and collaborates with a Katrina evacuee who cooks up flavored pretzels and other treats under the Chezj brand.

During the winter months, when demand for cold treats wanes, the café serves a wider menu, including jambalayas and gumbos. The café also caters, and can produce snowballs off-site at summer parties, weddings or other events.

Sanders says her café employs about eight seasonal workers, mostly high school and college students. During the winter, the café plans to expand the food serving and to offer more retail treats, such as flavored popcorns.

The shop is featuring specials all summer, including a birthday treat. The first 50 loyalists to purchase the café’s birthday stuffed snowball will receive a New Orleans Mardi Gras souvenir cup to take home.  Throughout the summer, the cup will earn patrons refill specials.

Scanlon issued a call to the café’s loyal customers, students, expectant mothers, Louisiana loyalists, and thirsty northerners. “Let the Good Times Roll, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” wrote Scanlon in his invitation to the June 23 party. “We appreciate and love y’all!”