2023 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame: Ashley Hansen
Ashley Hasen, of Hansen’s Sno-Bliz, is SFA’s 2023 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award winner.
The story of Hansen’s Sno-Bliz is the sort that New Orleanians love to tell. It involves a business built and sustained by three generations of one New Orleans family, it has a post-Katrina happy ending despite tragic twists, and it has sweetness at its core.
Ernest Hansen, a machinist by trade and an inveterate tinkerer, built his first Sno-Bliz ice-shaving machine in the 1930s so he could make sno-balls for his family. His wife Mary parked the apparatus on the sidewalk and began hawking freeform clouds of shaved ice drenched in homemade flavored syrup for two cents a pop—a penny more than the going rate at the time.
Over the years, the business moved several times and eventually landed in the cinderblock building on Tchoupitoulas Street, where locals find reprieve during the hottest months. Cream of nectar, cream of chocolate, spearmint, orangeade, and Ernest’s Own root beer—all made daily—are among the favorite syrup flavors, but for many customers the Hansens themselves are the main reason for patronizing the shop.
Ernest and Mary, married for 72 years, both passed away before they could return to the city after Hurricane Katrina. Their granddaughter, Ashley, who had been working with them for nearly a decade, now runs the business and carries on their warmth as well as their recipes.
Each fall since 2000, the SFA, with support from the Fertel Foundation, has honored a relatively unsung hero or heroine, a foodways tradition bearer of note, with the Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award. We pay homage to their life and work through a documentary film, directed by Joe York. This year, that film debuted during the 2023 Southern Foodways Alliance Fall Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi. Celebrating these Keepers of the Flame, we also pay homage to the late Ruth Fertel, the beloved and respected New Orleans restaurateur and entrepreneur.
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Hansen’s Sno-Bliz
The story of Hansen’s Sno-Bliz is the sort that New Orleanians love to tell. It involves a business built and sustained by three generations of one New Orleans family, it has a welcome post-Katrina happy ending despite some tragic twists, and its core narrative is all about sweetness. Read More
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