Open the stand at noon. Check.
Sell snow cones. Check.
Close at 11 p.m. Clean the stand. Wake up the next morning and do it all again. Triple check.
As the owner of then-Eskimo Sno, this was the checklist Adrian Buendia lived by every day. When he started dating his now-wife and co-owner Jennii Buendia, he said, “You’re never gonna see me for the next 150 days. I work every single day.”
So she showed up and started handing out spoons to customers.
Twenty years later, the two are married and rebranded Eskimo Sno into Beanstalk Coffee & Sno, which serves snow cones, coffee and energy drinks. The company has grown to three brick-and-mortar locations across Norman and two snow cone stands, all aiming to capture the same atmosphere of the original.
“Lindsey Street was like a central hub for Norman to meet and greet,” Adrian said. “There were tons of families. Everybody hung out. So that's kind of what started us.”
In 2019, Jennii attended Texas Coffee School, where she learned about proper roasting techniques and negotiating coffee shop leases. With construction, rebranding and school complete, Beanstalk Coffee & Sno opened its first location Monday, March 23, 2020.
Four days later, the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“There was no option,” Jennii said. “It had to work because we had just poured so much money into this store, and it was so much bigger than anything we’d ever done. Failure was not an option at all.”
Armed with masks, plexi-glass and daily testing, Jennii and her sister worked at the store in the morning while Adrian homeschooled their children before joining them in the afternoon. By 2 p.m. every day, there was a line to the street.
The success spiraled, and the Buendias’ began to open new stores across the city, including a location on Campus Corner. Between having kids, opening new locations and handling new menu additions, Jennii says there is always a new adventure – but she and Adrian continue to have the same goal they did 20 years ago: be a place people can come to.
“Owning your own business is so hard, but the people that we meet and the relationships that we make from here is what makes it worth it,” Jennii said. “Some of my best friends now in life are from here. My life is completely different than it was six years ago.”
