Nothing about the Hawaiian Shave Ice cabana at Battlefield Parkway and Lafayette Road has escaped the attention of owner Paul Rogers.
The shave ice tycoon said research and experience have led him to the best block shaver machine in the business, the best-tasting flavoring, and the very building that brought the refreshing snack to the area first.
“Shave ice started right here in the South 24 years ago,” Rogers said. “This was the first one in the Southeast right here.”
The Swan block shaver, due for maintenance every 35 years, came with the business when Rogers bought it five years ago and sold his eight other local shave ice businesses. All told, he’s been in the shave ice business 15 years.
Rogers’ Tropical Sno brand flavors use real fruit, he said, and the same dehydration technology made famous by NASA when it sent Tang drink mix into orbit with astronauts in the 1960s.