SnoCorner, the popular, homegrown dessert shop across from Poly High School, is bringing a taste of Long Beach and New Orleans to the Coachella music festival this week and next. It’s a major showcase for bands, artists and food vendors alike, drawing hundreds of thousands of people across its two weekends in Indio.
Ashley Monconduit, a Poly High graduate, opened SnoCorner in 2021. It was the culmination of her childhood dream.
Visiting family in New Orleans over summer breaks, Monconduit learned to love the city’s fluffy shaved ice treats. After convincing a New Orleans snoball shop to teach her their secrets, she dreamed of launching her own business back in Long Beach, in the building her family owned across from Poly.
After college and working in real estate for a few years, she got the chance, and SnoCorner took off.
Serving at Coachella, she said, is just the next logical step.
“In New Orleans, celebration is part of everyday life, and there’s always this sense of community, music, and shared happiness everywhere. That same energy is what excites me about festivals,” Monconduit said. “Being able to serve people in those moments, where they’re already immersed in joy, and adding to that experience through a warm beignet feels really special.”
SnoCorner will be selling fresh beignets — light and airy square-shaped fried pastries popular in New Orleans — and matcha lattes. Both the classic beignet topped with powdered sugar and their banana pudding-filled beignets will be available in sets of three or five. The matcha lattes, made with oat milk, will be available in three flavors: classic, strawberry and ube.
Monconduit had been thinking about adding matcha lattes to her menu for the past year and is using Coachella to test it out. To thank the Long Beach community that has supported her for so many years, Monconduit also offered her customers a preview of her Coachella menu last Saturday.
“We wanted to have the community be the first to try it, because those are the folks that have quite literally made this moment possible,” she said.
Monconduit said she is really excited to see her 63-year-old father make matcha at their booth at Coachella. Her dad is getting ready for the big moment by preparing his jokes.
“He made a joke the other day, and he was like, ‘We gotcha matcha!’ And I was like, ‘Dad, that’s so lame,’” Monconduit laughed.
With the boost from Coachella and Long Beach supporting her, Monconduit thinks SnoCorner will only continue to grow.
SnoCorner, 1701 Atlantic Avenue, is open every day from noon to 7:30 p.m. The shop will still be open for its regular hours while Monconduit is running the booth at Coachella.