HARLINGEN— Your typical snow cone doesn’t have an ice cream sandwich in the middle of a pool of whipped cream, pecans, chocolate syrup, strawberries and bananas.
However at Iced Cube raspas the “Asap Rocky,” which is named after a popular rapper, does.
And that might just be one of the reasons boys and girls of all ages wait in long lines to get their hands on this tasty, sweet, cold treat.
Iced Cube in Harlingen had its grand opening this past Saturday, and cars lined up for two hours before the doors even opened.
For the owners of the popular raspa stands, the positive response in Harlingen was far from a surprise.
After the success of its initial location in Elsa, franchise owner Ashley Vasquez opened a second location in Mission and most recently partnered with Lorie Ramirez, 37, to bring the experience to Harlingen. The new location is at 602 Lewis Lane.
According to Ramirez, a customer said she waited three hours for her treat. Apparently the wait was worth it.
It’s a pretty typical scene at Iced Cube.
The Elsa location used to block traffic because of the number of cars in line.
The excitement could be because these out-of-the ordinary raspas catch the attention of teens.
Iced Cube has a twitter account to share memes and post daily deals, a way of getting teens’ attention.
Another cool and fun fact about the place is that it is decorated with the faces of celebrities who are well known among teenagers and young adults.
The artist that has painted the murals at all of the Iced Cubes, Hector Guerra, has placed the faces of Ice Cube himself in reference of the name. He’s also included famous people such as Drake, 2Pac, Bad Bunny, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and Eminem.
Most locations include all of these rappers and pop stars, but the Harlingen location has its own flare.
“It was my idea to add Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and other artists that I like and I thought would look cool,” franchise owner Ramirez said. “I wanted something that was very cool and appealed to the young crowd.”
Though the walls are covered with current popular celebrities, Ramirez decided her location would also include icons from the past.
Inside the drive through you can see the faces of Madonna, Prince and Freddie Mercury.
“I wanted to stay within the concept but change it a little bit,” Ramirez said. “Yes we want to appeal to a younger crowd, but also let people know it’s for everybody and they have really been enjoying the art.”
Ramirez said some of the customers in line will get out of their cars to take pictures with the colorful murals.
For area residents, it has become an experience to get an anticipated raspa.
“The intention is to have a place with a cool vibe where pretty much anybody can come and hang out while they enjoy a fun snack,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said she imagined her business would be popular, but not to the level it is.
“We are supposed to close at 11 but Saturday we left at almost 1 a.m. in the morning,” Ramirez added.
“Our last customer was around 12:45, mainly because we didn’t want to turn cars away, but we had to close the entrance at 11 if not they would have kept coming.”
The process of making the raspas is time consuming, and with that much demand, her team works extra hard to deliver as fast as possible.
Her team is led by her general manager Jo Leal.
The staff is mainly comprised of teenagers who work rapidly taking orders and creating the extravagant raspas.
Katelyn Garza, 16, San Benito went to the first Iced Cube location and once she found out they were opening one in Harlingen, she decided to apply.
“This is my first job, it has been very exciting and fast-paced but it has been really fun. I remember going to the Elsa one with my friends after seeing it on twitter and now I work here.”
