A San Antonio dessert trailer that's been slinging Hungarian chimney cones filled with blended ice cream since 2024 is racing to open the city's first brick-and-mortar chimney cone shop before a national, Shark Tank-backed competitor gets there. Gilbert and Kristina Torres, owners of Cone N' Swirl, signed a lease in July 2026 for a 1,452-square-foot space at 9910 W. Loop 1604 N., Suite 104, inside the Braun Pointe Shopping Center, and they're hoping to welcome customers before the end of the year.
The timeline hasn't been locked in. As reported by WhatNow, a contractor has submitted permit paperwork to the City of San Antonio, and the Torreses are aiming for a December 2026 opening, though they have not confirmed an exact date. The couple currently runs Cone N' Swirl through a mobile food trailer, and Gilbert Torres described the storefront as an expansion of that operation rather than a total reinvention, calling it the business's first physical store.
The race to open first carries some competitive weight. According to San Antonio Current, Cone N' Swirl is positioned to beat national franchise Crispy Cones, a concept backed by Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran with a $200,000 investment, in opening San Antonio's first brick-and-mortar chimney cone shop. Crispy Cones is renovating a 1,233-square-foot space at 18130 San Pedro Ave. that's expected to open in early 2027, according to the same outlet.
A Spot Chosen for Traffic and Neighbors
The Braun Pointe location wasn't a random pick. It was selected for its proximity to major roads, nearby businesses and a sports complex, per the WhatNow report, and the shopping center already includes Little Woodrow's, Fast Eddie's and a Starbucks. Commercial property filings from Fulcrum Development, cited by the same outlet, show the 52,487-square-foot Braun Pointe center, built in 2007 at Loop 1604 and Braun Road, sits along a corridor with traffic counts exceeding 89,000 vehicles per day.
The center's tenant mix is also shifting toward experiences that keep shoppers around after dark. WhatNow has reported that Braun Pointe is adding Back Nine Golf, a 24/7 indoor golf simulator venue, expanding the shopping center's entertainment footprint alongside new food vendors. Ahead of construction, Cone N' Swirl ran pop-up events directly in the Braun Pointe parking lot in August and September, according to the business's own social media updates, giving neighbors an early taste of what's coming.
From Trailer to Two Blenders
Inside the new shop, the upgrades go beyond square footage. The storefront will have two blenders, compared with the single blender the trailer currently uses, and staff will be on hand to walk customers through the ordering and customization process. The Torreses plan to hire roughly 10 to 12 employees and are considering adding shakes, half-pints and pints of ice cream to the menu, along with a designated photo area for desserts.
Gilbert Torres said the storefront should offer an experience beyond a typical ice cream shop visit. For a grand-opening celebration, the couple is weighing prizes, discounts and branded giveaways, the report notes, and the storefront will run on a self-ordering process once it's up and running.
How the Dessert Came Together
Cone N' Swirl combines Hungarian chimney cakes with blended ice cream, and the chimney cones themselves are made by wrapping strips of dough around a spit and baking them until crisp. The Torreses discovered the concept while watching a television program, then traveled to Houston to try chimney cones in person before spending roughly two months perfecting their own recipe.
That recipe relies on a blending technique that produces a thicker, denser ice cream mixture than standard soft serve. Per San Antonio Current, the filling draws on New Zealand-style soft serve, folding vanilla or chocolate bases together with whole fruit, nuts, cookies or coffee rather than artificial flavoring. Customers choose their cone flavor, ice cream combination and toppings, with options including cinnamon sugar, Oreo, graham cracker and plain cones, plus “stick 'ems” like pretzel rods, KitKats and Nilla Wafers, according to the company's own site. Those who skip the pastry altogether can order the Cup N' Swirl, a cup-based version of the dessert.
Old-World Pastry, New-World Competition
The chimney cake itself has centuries of history behind it. Known as kürtőskalács, the pastry originated in Transylvania, with its earliest surviving recipe recorded in 1784, and it was officially designated a Hungarian cultural treasure, or Hungarikum, in 2015, according to the Hungarian Conservative. The idea of stuffing the hollow pastry with soft serve is far more recent, emerging in 2011 as a way to turn a seasonal winter treat into a year-round dessert, according to industry documentation from Dober Kürtős.
Crispy Cones, the rival chain racing to catch up in San Antonio, traces its own roots to 2018, when a BYU-Idaho student modified Czech trdelník pastries by lining the inside bottom with Nutella or fruit spreads to stop the ice cream from leaking out, San Antonio Current has reported. That structural tweak is what allowed the dessert to travel from European market stalls to American strip malls in the first place.
Cone N' Swirl's move also fits a broader pattern playing out across San Antonio, where mobile vendors have increasingly graduated into permanent storefronts. Hoodline reported on Dorp Creamery's leap from food truck to a permanent shop on St. Mary's Street, and Far West San Antonio recently welcomed its first standalone Bruster's Real Ice Cream location. For the Torreses, Braun Pointe is just the start: Kristina Torres said the business plans to open more stores, and the couple hopes to eventually bring Cone N' Swirl to major cities across Texas while exploring franchising opportunities.
