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Ruby’s Sno-Balls, an East Dallas snow cone stand beloved for its creative flavors and New Orleans style shaved ice, won’t return for summer 2021.
In a post to its Instagram account, Ruby’s says that it “unexpectedly” lost its tiny, walk-up location at 1605 North Haskell Avenue sometime in the past year, then dealt with zoning issues that prevented it from setting up shop in a second space. “It’s been a hard year for everyone and we were not an exception,” the post reads. “We tried to get into a new location but ran into zoning issues with the city that, despite a lot of effort and worry, we could not get resolved. All signs point to taking a step back at this time.”
Since its 2016 debut in East Dallas, Ruby’s attracted a devoted crowd of Dallasites who were happy to line up in the blistering summer heat for a paper cup full of cooling shaved ice. Known for its freshly made syrups in flavors like honeysuckle, Vietnamese iced coffee, and spiced honey-orange, the departure of the shop’s absurdly fluffy sno-balls inspired an outpouring of emotional responses from hardcore Ruby’s fans, ranging from disbelief to devastation.
“I won’t lie that I’m on the verge of tears,” wrote one commenter. “This makes my heart so sad, but just know that whenever or if you all are ready to come back, I will be waiting.”
Fortunately, the minds behind Ruby’s did leave the door open for a future comeback, just not this summer. “As for the future, who can say? Hopefully I will have good Ruby related news to share with y’all at some point,” the post reads. “For now, I need to pack it up.”
