🌿 Michigan
Prickly Ice Detroit: Cactus Shaved Ice, Opening Winter 2027
A greenhouse café where it's tropical all year.
Prickly Ice is bringing its cactus-shaped, hand-shaved snow to Detroit in Winter 2027. Here's everything we can share so far.
Why Detroit and shaved ice belong together
Michigan summers are short, green and treasured — locals chase every warm afternoon, and a frozen treat is part of the reward. But we wanted our Detroit shop to work in January too, so we're building it as a plant-filled greenhouse café: a warm, humid, tropical room you can duck into when there's snow on the sidewalk and still get snow in a bowl.
Detroit is a maker's city in the middle of a real comeback, with historic Corktown, the cultural heart of Midtown, and the legendary weekend crowds at Eastern Market. It's a place that appreciates something built by hand — which is exactly how every Prickly Ice bowl is made.
The neighborhoods we're scouting
We want to land somewhere you're already spending your warm afternoons. Right now we're looking hardest at Corktown, Midtown and Eastern Market — and the final address will go to our email list before anyone else hears it.
Flavors born for Detroit
Our Detroit menu celebrates the Midwest's best fruit — Michigan cherries and strawberries at their summer peak — alongside creamy milk snow and chewy black-sugar boba. It's tropical-meets-Great-Lakes, and it tastes like the best two weeks of a Michigan July, available all year.
What makes the Detroit shop special
Our Michigan shop is the coziest room in town when it's cold out: a glass-house café full of plants and warm light, where the tropics are always in season no matter what the lake-effect sky is doing. Every bowl is fluffy hand-shaved snow, sculpted into a smiling little cactus and buried in fresh fruit — prickly on the outside, sweet and soft inside.
Exact address and opening day are still being finalized. Join the list below and you'll be the very first to know — plus the first 100 friends get a free mini Desert Flight on opening day.
Detroit shaved ice: your questions
When is Prickly Ice opening in Detroit?
Our Detroit greenhouse café is planned for Winter 2027 — the coziest time for a warm, tropical room. Subscribe to the email list and we'll send you the opening date and address first.
Where in Detroit will Prickly Ice be located?
We're scouting Corktown, Midtown and the Eastern Market area. Email subscribers will hear the final spot before anyone else.
Is shaved ice really a good idea in a cold-weather city?
That's exactly why our Detroit shop is a warm, plant-filled greenhouse café — a tropical escape you can enjoy year-round, snow outside or not.
Will you use Michigan-grown fruit?
Whenever it's in season, yes. Michigan cherries and strawberries are a big part of the Detroit menu we're planning.
Explore Michigan shaved ice
Craving snow before we open? Read our local guides to Ann Arbor · Royal Oak · Ferndale, browse the full menu, or dig into our guide to the best shaved ice in Detroit.
Be first in line in Detroit 🌵
Free mini Desert Flight for the first 100 friends at every grand opening.
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