Restaurant Review | The Free-Zee Spot

A Rainbow of Fruit Flavors, Revived

reviewed by Lutius Quintus Cincinattus Tait

** (Very Good)

For owner and executive ice shaver Christie Vickers, the journey to create the Free-Zee Spot has been long, arduous, and fraught with tension. Everyone who spent any time at the intersection of Hale County Road 34 and Alabama Highway 25 knows the story of Vickers’ contentious split with former partner Wanda Tift, after she refused to allow Tift to use profits from their joint venture, The Eskimo Hut, to bail her brother out of jail. After their bitter argument, local snow cone aficionados worried that the ensuing small claims court battle might rob Vickers of the urge to create sugary, colorful masterpieces for which she has become renowned during the hot summer months. Fellow gourmands, it is time to rejoice, because Vickers has rejoined the ranks of the shaved ice masters with her daring new snow cone stand, the Free-Zee Spot.

Let’s start with the location, which in the snow cone stand business is everything. The Free-Zee spot is nestled in a cozy corner of the Buddy’s Parade gas station parking lot in Moundville, where it attracts traffic from both Alabama Highway 69 South and Centerville Street. The fluorescent blue exterior of the small storage shed attracts the eye with its garishness and evokes the cool feel of the ice that is central to the snow cone. Despite its gaudy, humble storage shed exterior, the stand draws in crowds of Moundville’s most celebrated residents. On one afternoon visit, I spied the local deputy police chief and the Employee of the Month from Hinson’s Grocery.

It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that the stand seems like a one-woman show. On a recent Wednesday night where temperatures climbed to nearly 98 degrees, I was forced to wait in line nearly 15 minutes while numerous families cycled through on their way home from church. The line was held up considerably while Vickers combed the crowd in search of change for a $10 bill. Other days, the stand was inexplicably closed, with handmade signs pasted to the front stating things like, “Temporarily Closed. Will open following Carrie Underwood’s appearance on Oprah”, and “Gone to Dollar Gen. Back n 15 min.” The casual diner is advised to call the Buddy’s Parade and ensure the Free-Zee Spot is open before riding up the road for snow cones.

For the most part, Vickers’ stays true to her training at the Eskimo Hut in her flavor combinations. The stand offers some 42 single flavors, which can be ordered from a list of pre-defined combinations or selected at will by the customer. Selecting more than 3 flavors will incur an additional $.25 charge per flavor. Some choices, such as the Auburn Tiger special, consisting of stripes of blue raspberry and orange flavor syrup are so dull they seem like they were copied directly from the standard industry textbook, Snow Cones for Dummies. In some cases, sticking with what seems like a basic standard pays off in spades for Vickers. It doesn’t matter that the Hale County Wildcat salute is a rehashing of the old standard banana and grape mixture; the flavor combination was so sugary, cold, and delicious on a hot day that I forgot I was in an asphalt parking lot and imagined instead I was a child wandering the dirt lots of the county fair, still nauseous from the motion of the tilt-a-whirl and stench of livestock.

With new flavors, like mojito, which tastes suspiciously like lemon-lime soda syrup, and mango, Vickers’ stretches the boundaries of typical snow cone flavors to their limits. However, the selection of flavors is not all dreams of sugary syrup in ice. I found the flavor of the peach/bubblegum combination to be cloyingly sweet and the color palette of orange and pink clashed badly. The rainbow of flavors is overly ambitious, and in combination the cherry, orange, lemon, apple, and blue raspberry flavors become muddled and indistinguishable. Depending on which night I visited, portions of syrup dispensed varied wildly from stingy to excessive.

Even with these few stumbles, the Free-Zee Spot makes a valuable contribution to Moundville’s culinary landscape. Vickers has stepped admirably into the void created by the demise of the Eskimo Hut, and has started to build her own shaved ice castle.

* *

Corner of AL Hwy 69 and Centerville Street, Moundville

ATMOSPHERE: A dusty, garbage strewn asphalt parking lot, surrounded by clouds of exhaust
SOUND LEVEL: Loud during morning and afternoon rush hours. Expect to hear jake brakes,
sirens, car stereos, and engine noise.
RECOMMENDED DISHES: Hale County Wildcat Special (banana and grape), mojito, mango, red
WINE LIST: Numerous flavors of Boone’s Farm available at the nearby Buddy’s Parade
Convenience Store.
PRICE RANGE: Small $1.50, Medium $2.25, Large $3.00, Jumbo, $4.25.
HOURS: Sporadic, typically closed during local airings of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and Dollar
General clearance events.
RESERVATIONS: Call Buddy’s Parade for priority space in line.
CREDIT CARDS: Cash only, no rolls of pennies accepted.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Accessible