Beloved Beaverdale institution Snookies Malt Shop is getting a new look.
The long-time, flat-topped seasonal ice cream stand has been remodeled to have a pitched roofline, per site plans for the location at 1810 Beaver Ave.
The project cost about $40,000, and neighborhood improvement nonprofit Invest DSM covered half of the cost, Snookies owner Leslie Hunter told the Des Moines Register on Monday, Oct. 27.
Even though Snookies operates from late spring to early fall, the building must weather all four seasons. The original flat roof experienced some leakage, said Logan Hansen, a structural engineer with Tomeitch Engineering who worked on the project.
During the last two weeks of the shop’s 2025 operating season, a hard rain triggered the issue yet again.
“I look over and sure enough, it’s just pouring in,” Hunter recalled.
Putting a bucket under the leak served as a short-term solution, but over time, the rubber membrane of the flat roof has become worn. The new roof should allow Snookies to stay dry during the 2026 season.
“All they wanted to do was give it a different look by making it sloped instead of perfectly flat,” Hansen said.
The trusses for the new roof sit atop the existing roof, with steel reinforcements.
“We don’t want to change the building too much, but we thought the profile would be low enough that it wouldn’t change much,” Hunter said.
Snookies Malt Shop: A landmark location
The 70-year-old brick-and-cinderblock building doesn’t have a historic designation, but its iconic, pink neon sign is an official local landmark. The Des Moines City Council approved the designation in 2021 after a car hit the sign, causing it to topple. With the council’s blessing, Snookies re-erected the sign, despite a city ordinance that prohibits new pole sign installations in the area.
Formerly a Dairy Queen, the building has been an ice cream business for 70 years, but it wasn’t until 1986 that it became Snookies. Jim Graves and Marilyn Caves ― whose childhood nickname was “Snookie” ― owned of the shop until 2012, when their daughter, Brandy Proulx, took over ownership.
Proulx sold the business to Connie Hunter and her husband, Jim, close friends of the original owner, in 2019.
Kate Kealey is the growth and development reporter for the Register. Reach her at kkealey@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Snookies Malt Shop gets a new look. See updates to the 70-year-old Beaverdale landmark
Reporting by Kate Kealey, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
