Operations

How Flying Dolly’s is cooling down the Gulf Coast

Flying Dolly’s is a community-focused boutique creamery that pairs nostalgic, artisanal ice cream with authentic New Orleans-style snoballs, leveraging a hands-on franchise model to expand its footprint across the Gulf Coast with a goal of reaching 35 locations by 2031.

Photo: Flying Dolly's

April 3, 2026 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

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The air inside Flying Dolly's carries a scent that can only be described as "nostalgia with a high-fat content" — a heady mix of toasted sugar, Madagascar vanilla and the crisp, buttery snap of fresh-baked waffle cones. While the rest of the world moves at the breakneck speed of a 2026 digital feed, this boutique creamery operates on a different clock, one measured in the slow, rhythmic glide of a heavy-duty scoop through artisanal, batch-chilled dairy. Flying Dolly's has evolved from a Gulf Coast secret into a pastel-hued pilgrimage site for anyone seeking more than just a cold snack; they are looking for a hand-dipped, double-scooped masterpiece that successfully defies the Southern heat.

Founded by Jeff Robertson, CEO, and his wife, Corey Robertson, CFO, in 2011, in Mandeville, Louisiana, the brand sells ice cream and snoballs. Snoballs, an iced confection, was created in New Orleans, according to Shane Mutter, Flying Dolly's company president.

Robertson's parents had a commercial building that housed a seafood store, and Robertson wanted to convert that into a snoball stand. He'd done his research and was burned out on corporate life. Robertson approached his parents and wife and said they could source the ice cream and make the snoballs. Why snoballs and ice cream? There were a couple of families that had created machinery that could shave ice down to a fine powder. (Those two families still have snowball brands to this day.) Snoballs are not the same as shaved ice — it takes different equipment and shaved ice is not created as fine as snoballs.

"In this part of the country, snowballs are a very common thing, especially between the months of March through September, typically," Mutter said in a phone interview with QSRweb.com. "It's high margins with the snowballs. It's a product that could be considered recession-proof, if you think about it. You're talking three, four, five, maybe six dollars for a snoball depending upon the size, and high frequency of traffic, of customers, kids getting out of school every day or even on the weekends coming in. And it's a thing that families do together. They bring their kids there, they go sit down on a picnic bench and talk and hang out, and it's about togetherness."

Initially, Robertson sold Blue Bell ice cream. Later, he thought he could make the ice cream himself and have some fun with it. He invested in machinery and started crafting recipes, testing them and ultimately, the brand now creates more than 60 flavors of ice cream.

A Flying Dolly's snoball. Photo: Flying Dolly's

Franchising and growth

There are five Flying Dolly's locations, and they own one Pandora's snoball stand in a New Orleans neighborhood. The brand has been franchising for six years, and by the end of July, execs hope it will have a total of 10 units in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Robertson and Mutter plan to open another in Alabama with a partner soon.

Mutter joined in late 2023. His father had invested in Robertson's venture and introduced him to the Robertsons.

They look for strong communities when it comes to Flying Dolly's franchised locations — communities that are involved with kids, such as schools and churches in the area.

"We are very proactive in our communities with giving back to the community," Mutter said. "So not only do we want to find communities that are like a Mandeville or like a Covington in our area, but also that have a very strong community sense."

As such, community-minded people are top of mind when it comes to franchisees.

The first location in Mandeville started in a small cottage-type building with limited parking. In Mobile, Alabama, they added a drive-thru that helps fight the elements when the weather isn't cooperative, but there isn't enough room inside for seating.

"It is nice when you can combine the two and have a cafe with a drive-thru that will allow for families to come inside," Mutter explained. "Usually when that happens, families come in and they see all the different varieties of ice cream, so then they're educated on all the varieties that we have to offer. People want to test or sample different products that we have, so it makes for a better experience as opposed to just the drive-through."

Operations

Flying Dolly's is a seasonal business, with higher sales March through September into October, Mutter said, adding that it really depends on the weather.

"Yes, the months do slow down as November, December, January and into February approach," Mutter said. "Then you just scale back your labor, you scale back your food costs and you really just go with the flow of business and scale down to cut your costs to where they need to be and just stay in line with those formulas, stay in line with those percentages."

They've started promoting snoballs year-round and have increased the promotion of their ice cream. In the winter months, ice cream sales go up.

Honeycomb is their no. 1 flavor. It has homemade honey brittle that is baked, chopped and infused into the sweet cream blend with honey in the ice cream. There's even a stuffed snoball with nectar cream syrup and two scoops of honeycomb ice cream that's called The Hummingbird.

There are flavors and limited-time offerings for seasons and holidays, and a lineup of everyday flavors guests can expect to see. Flavors go through rigorous testing. They buy ingredients as local as they can.

The ice cream is made at a production facility in Mandeville, but they do have one partner who makes it for his own market. A few mom-and-pop ice cream shops even sell Flying Dolly's ice cream.

Recruiting and retaining talent is competitive, but Mutter also calls it fun and exciting. Recruiting isn't much of a challenge for Flying Dolly's, and the brand uses social media and reaches out to schools to help find team members. They'll hire 15 to 20 when they open a store knowing that 95% of those will be part-time and they want to be flexible around workers' schedules.

Snoballs and stuffed snoballs set the company apart from others in a crowded dessert space. That's coupled with the fact that their franchise partners are operators, not just owners. "They're hands-on and, again, part of the community. It's not just a job," Mutter said, adding that he's turned down prospective franchisees from Dallas to Florida who were just interested in mass store openings — not putting the love and care into the brand that makes it exceptional in the cold desserts market.

Mutter and the team would like to get to 35 stores in the next five years.

"We want to be in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, even into Florida along the Panhandle, but we don't really want to go too far outside of that because logistics become an issue, and we'd rather stay within the region that we know best," Mutter said. "We don't need to be in all 50 states. We can't be in all 50 states. We don't want to be. So, we've chosen our grounds and we're going to stick to that and I would say by 2031 if we do everything that we're setting out to do right now, we will be at 35."

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.

An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.

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