A shave ice business with roots stretching back to a beach food truck in 1957 is opening its first Las Vegas-area location in Henderson, bringing the distinctive block-shaved ice and syrup recipes of a Big Island family to Southern Nevada. Original Big Island Shave Ice Co. will occupy 10271 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 115, a space that has cycled through several dessert tenants before now.
The company, known simply as OBISIC in Hawaii, will open at the Eastern Avenue address according to public building records, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That storefront previously housed a dress shop, Sage Christian Creamery, and CJ's Italian Ice & Custard, per the paper, and it sits near Gaetano's Ristorante within the Henderson retail strip. The company has not shared an exact opening date, but it told followers that Las Vegas is getting closer to the store opening, and it has promoted its Vegas arrival on Instagram for a few months, according to the Review-Journal's reporting.
The Henderson address falls within Siena Promenade, an upscale retail center that serves the master-planned communities of Anthem, Seven Hills, and MacDonald Ranch, according to Newmark Knight Frank. The surrounding stretch of South Eastern Avenue sees roughly 57,000 vehicles pass by each day, the commercial real estate report notes, putting the new shave ice shop in front of heavy local traffic before it even opens.
From a Beach Truck in Waimea to a Family Legacy
The company's story begins with Lorraine Berdon Kaono, who operated a mobile shave ice market at Spencer Beach Park in Waimea starting in 1957, per the Review-Journal. Known locally as “The Shave Ice Lady,” Kaono ran her food truck, named Lorraine's Snack Mobile, at both Spencer Beach Park and Kahalu'u Beach Park in West Hawaii, and she kept her cart at Kahalu'u for 20 years before retiring in 1996, according to Aloha State Daily.
The business sat dormant for nearly two decades until Kaono's son, Reggie Ignacio, and his wife, Kim, officially revived it in 2014 as Original Big Island Shave Ice Co., Inc., the outlet reports. Ignacio first learned to make shave ice from his mother at age 10, and the company has kept her original syrup recipes across four generations of family operation. Today the brand's flagship Hawaii storefront sits at Kings' Shops within the Waikōloa Beach Resort on the Big Island, according to the shopping center's own directory.
What's Coming to the Menu
In Hawaii, OBISIC lets customers build their own shave ice from more than two dozen syrup choices and seven topping choices, according to the Review-Journal, with toppings including li hing mui powder, mochi, and gummy bears. The shop also offers five ice cream flavors on the islands, among them kona coffee, vanilla, and haupia. The business has been praised for the texture and flavor of its shave ice, the paper notes, and it recently posted an interior image of its new store bearing the company logo, though it has not publicly shared the exact location of its Vegas store beyond the building records the Review-Journal uncovered.
OBISIC's shave ice is built on pure cane sugar, whole fruit purees, and 100% natural flavors served over finely shaved ice in a distinctive square bowl, according to Aloha State Daily's account of the brand. That approach relies on the traditional block-shaving method that separates real Hawaiian shave ice from a mainland snow cone: specialized block shavers cut ice into delicate, snow-like ribbons that soak up syrup instead of letting it pool at the bottom, as previously explained by Hoodline.
Riding a Decades-Old Hawaii-to-Vegas Pipeline
OBISIC's mainland debut lands squarely within a cultural and economic corridor that has linked Hawaii and Southern Nevada for half a century. Las Vegas earned its nickname as Hawaii's “Ninth Island” in the 1970s, when casino pioneer Sam Boyd began marketing the California Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas directly to Hawaii residents through discount flight charters and island-style amenities, according to SFGATE.
That pipeline has only grown. Clark County is now home to more than 40,000 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander residents, the largest such community on the U.S. mainland, according to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by The Nevada Independent. Census estimates also show more Native Hawaiians now live on the mainland, about 370,000, than in Hawaii itself, roughly 310,000, a shift the outlet attributes largely to high housing costs in the islands, with an estimated 15,000 residents leaving Hawaii for the mainland each year.
Ahead of the opening, OBISIC has leaned into that connection with its own marketing push. In August, the company introduced a scented candle called “1957” under a new “Legacy Collection” and ran a social media giveaway for Las Vegas residents, honoring the year Kaono first started serving shave ice on the beach. Whether the Henderson menu will mirror the full Waikōloa lineup, and whether any family members plan to relocate to oversee the new store, remain open questions the company has not yet answered publicly.
