Avast, ye swabs. It’s better than sunken treasure – a Big Easy-style sno-ball. And those are to be found on the Pacific Beach boardwalk at Hornblend Street. “I offer my mateys a refreshing snowlike-texture treat to beat the heat, with more than 15 flavor options to choose from,” said Marcel Pineda, owner-founder of Pirate Sno-Balls, at 4449 Ocean Blvd, the latest beach treat to hit PB’s shores. Pineda, a New Orleans transplant, said his Southern-style sno-balls are a cut above the rest. “The process and texture of my sno-balls soaks up the flavor as opposed to more granular shaved ice, ice cubes crunched up, which allows the syrup (flavor) to sink to the bottom,” Pineda said. He added that his confections “lock up the ice as they are put up against a spinning blade” to give them that “snowlike texture.” Pineda has been operating his Pirate Sno-Balls business from a cart for about the past two months. He had to acquire a health food permit license and a permit for a mobile food cart in order to operate. He’s renting space on the private property of a beachfront hotel. Pineda originally came to San Diego to work as a consultant on an initial public offering as a certified public accountant. Once that assignment ended, he said he liked San Diego so much that “I decided to leave my consulting company and start my own business bringing to the shores of PB this delicious treat that I enjoyed growing up in New Orleans every day during the summer.” As a Hurricane Katrina survivor, Pineda has an interesting story to relate about how that catastrophe was life-changing. “My life changed forever since I woke up the Saturday morning before the hurricane hit New Orleans and had to evacuate my home with no idea that I wouldn’t return home for months,” he said. “My family had to rebuild our house after Katrina because insurance only covered the flood damage and most of our damage was wind damage.” The powerful hurricane made landfall in Southern Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. “I will be offering a special for customers on the 10-year anniversary of Katrina, with proceeds going back to New Orleans,” noted Pineda. Pirate Sno-Balls cost $5 for a regular cup and $3 for a kid-size cup. In keeping with the spirit of his business, Pineda has his facial hair shaped like a pirate’s beard and wears a pirate hat. Pineda said a lot of his late-summer business has been out-of-towners, from Arizona mostly, on their annual pilgrimage to San Diego to beat the desert heat. “I’d get the same people from the same families coming in every day for two weeks,” Pineda said, noting that clientele has been tapering off with the end of summer and the start of the new school year.
But, he added, he gets lots of locals coming in too. “Once they try it, they love it,” he said. “And they come back.” The accountant-turned-entrepreneur said he’s probably keep his sno-ball cart open until around Thanksgiving. He added he’s looking for a wintertime business concept to switch over to. “Maybe something involving hot chocolate,” he said. For more information, visit piratesnoballs.com. Twitter: https://twitter.com/PirateSnoballs. Instagram: https://instagram.com/piratesnoballs/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PirateSnoBalls.