A little more than a year ago, Marci Clark took her Suga Mama SnoBalls from a food trailer to a storefront location at 1717 E. Holmes Road in Whitehaven.

Now, in spite of the coronavirus pandemic, Clark is opening a second location in March at 7041 E. Shelby Drive in Southeast Memphis.

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This second location will hopefully satisfy customers who say “Whitehaven is so far,” Clark said.

“I have a lot of traffic coming from East Memphis and Cordova. I didn’t want to go all the way out to Cordova, so (Southeast Memphis) is a more central location for people to come,” she said of her new spot.

Like the Whitehaven location, the new restaurant will sell traditional snow cones, her specialty banana pudding snow cone, cheesecake snow cone and savory dishes, like nachos, hot dogs and tacos.

There is space to for dine-in service in Whitehaven, but the Shelby Drive location will be take-out only, Clark said.

Snow cones are basic, but Clark said she’s still looking for ways to innovate her offerings. She’s considering adding milkshakes to the menu and snow cone syrups with more natural ingredients.

“Some people don’t like dye. They want it to be more natural. A lot of people are going plant based and are cautious about what they put in their bodies,” Clark said.

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Restaurants in Memphis and across the country have suffered losses and closed because of necessary health restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19.

That Clark has been able to open her first location months before the coronavirus pandemic hit and grow that business into a second location is impressive, said Jeff Zepatos with the Memphis Restaurant Association

“I’ve never shaken her hand in my life, but how much do I respect her and look up to her. It takes a lot of spunk to do what she’s doing,” said Zepatos, a partner with the family-owned Arcade Restaurant on South Main Street.

Running a successful food business isn’t just about the food, it’s also about the person selling the food, he said.

“She’s what this industry needs,” Zepatos said.

Clark, 35 and a Whitehaven High School graduate, has always loved snow cones.

“My granddaddy used to take me to Sno Cream Castle on Getwell and Elliston (roads). I always loved them as a little kid,” she said.

They also got snow cones from a vendor who set up outside the Lollipops skate rink in Southaven, Clark said.

She worked for Kellogg Co. and in 2016 decided to take off on her own, first with the trailer at the Professional Cuts barbershop on Park Avenue, moving later to Whitehaven at Holmes and Millbranch roads, in addition to festivals and events.

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Clark said weather-related closings made a storefront attractive, even when it’s cold.

“I wanted to close for a couple of months, but people said ‘we enjoy them in the cold,’” she said.

She employs eight people at the Whitehaven location and expects to hire 10 for the new shop.

Clark calls her mother “suga mama” and named the restaurant after her mother, Margaret Clark-Johnson. And it’s her mother’s face on the logo.

“She was about 20 years old when she first started talking about it,” Clark-Johnson said about her daughter’s aspirations. “Even though she had another job, she said God had given her a vision. I told her to step out on faith.”

Her daughter has worked hard to perfect her flavor combinations and visited New Orleans to learn how vendors there got the consistency of the ice just right.

“A friend of mine said if you can sell a snowball in the wintertime and it’s 20 degrees, it must be good,” Clark-Johnson said.

She visits the Whitehaven store regularly to speak to customers and make sure they’re satisfied and will try to do the same at the new location.

Is she proud?

“I really am. I’m just ecstatic,” Clark-Johnson said.