Italy’s Amalfi Coast is world-renowned for its high cliffs and majestic coves, seaside vistas, and namesake lemons. Despite the nearly six-thousand miles that stretch between this Italian oasis and the Texas Hill Country, visitors and locals of the Lone Star State can conveniently sample a taste of la dolce vita in the heart of downtown Fredericksburg.
Last summer, Piccolina opened on the corner of East Main and South Lincoln Street, serving small batch Italian ice with locally sourced, Hill Country ingredients. Christina Harman is the hard-working entrepreneur behind this popular new storefront. Prior to flexing her entrepreneurial muscle, the Tyler native graduated from Texas A&M University, later working in marketing and in Austin as a land manager and geographic information system (GIS) mapping specialist for the oil and gas industry.
In the Spring of 2017, Harman’s life changed when she received a devastating phone call that her father passed away. “After losing my dad I felt really lost,” she remembers. “Everybody experiences grief differently, but it was a very dark place for me.” In need of a reset and an escape from city life, she set her sights on the Hill Country, and shortly thereafter began working in ranch real estate.
One day, while sitting in the drive-through line at Whataburger in Fredericksburg, she noticed a tiny, vacated building made of stone. “I kept looking at it and thinking, what could that be?” she recalls. As she reflected on what was missing in her new adopted home, the picture of an elevated sno-cone stand came to her imagination.
Though the building was ultimately demolished, the seed of Harman’s dream was firmly planted. Drawing from her lifelong love of Italy, with its fruity gelatos and icy granitas, she decided to create something similar at home, albeit with a healthier, Hill Country twist.
Despite her lack of culinary experience, she created her product in earnest, pairing fresh, pureed fruits from neighboring farms and orchards with cane sugar, and water. The ingredients were then put into a batch freezer where they were spun and frozen simultaneously, resulting in a sweet Italian ice that is light, refreshing, and tastes more like an airy sorbet than a syrup-drenched sno-cone.
In the early days, Harman began peddling her product out of a 1967 Citroën HY. Drawn to the vehicle’s nostalgic nature and French history, she purchased it sight unseen from a coffee shop in Kansas City and named it The Madame after the iconic Madame Clicquot of Veuve Clicquot Champagne – one of her entrepreneurial idols. “When it got here, I didn’t even know if I could reach the pedals,” laughs Harman, who at 4-foot-11 is a fitting representation of Piccolina, which translates to ‘little one’ in Italian. “A lot of the older Germans around here like to look at it and say it’s just like a tractor.”
With The Madame in tow, Harman began participating in local parades and weekly farmers markets, while parking at wineries and regional events like the Stonewall Peach JAMboree on weekends. “I was working full time and doing events so I would sell out and then spend all night making more,” she says of the early days. “It was a one man show.”
By 2022, Harman began thinking about the future of her brand. “There was only so much the truck could do and so many places I could park,” she shares. And then, as fate would have it, the morning after Fredericksburg’s annual Christmas Parade, Harman ran into the local entrepreneur, Jon Crenwelge, who had a building on Main Street he was interested in leasing. The space, which was originally the old Weidenfeller Magnolia Oil Station from the early 1950s, brimmed with potential.
From January to June of 2023, Harman worked tirelessly to modernize the building, while paying homage to its history. Using images from The Pioneer Museum, she restored the floor to its original concrete, and relied on many local friends to assist with the finish-out. “Everybody on Main Street was so welcoming,” she shares. “I have a really tight circle that came around me and pitched in.”
On sunny Hill Country days, patrons enjoy their scoops of Italian ice on Piccolina’s expansive patio, where Harman’s second Citroën, a minty green 1959 HY that was imported from the UK, attracts visitors passing through. Next to it, crates full of lemons transport the senses to Italy’s Amalfi Coast. “It is hard to be in a bad mood when you are in Italy, especially on the coast, and I just wanted to recreate that feeling here,” she shares. Inside, Harman has a retail shop with Piccolina swag and local-to-Fredericksburg merchandise. “The building’s original owner, Mr. Weidenfeller, used to purchase and sell pecans and deer hides, from what I’m told,” Harman says. “We did a collaboration with San Saba Soap Co. which makes pecan oils, just as a little nod to that history.”
Though Harman’s business has grown over time, one thing that hasn’t changed is her commitment to local growers. Last year, she invited the community to a strawberry picking party at Jenschke Orchards, and by fall, was selling a spiced pear flavor using fruits from Vogel Orchard. To date, the company’s Blackberry Lemon remains the number one fan favorite, with their Pineapple Coconut coming in second. “We sell out and that’s okay,” Harman says. “That’s what happens when it’s fresh.”
The Piccolina team also serves fresh-squeezed lemonades, and a prosecco-soaked Italian ice concoction dubbed The Proseccolina. The latter has been a runaway bestseller since a patron came in and posted a viral TikTok video. Still, Harman insists, “I don’t want to be a bar. There are enough of those here and I have always wanted this to be a family friendly place.”
Since opening her storefront last summer, Piccolina has welcomed a wide range of people passing through, from young locals stopping by after school to international guests, be they Australian or African. Admittedly, Harman says that playing a small part in each person’s day, and honoring her customers’ different stories, is one of the best perks of the job. “I have had guests here celebrating being cancer free for the first day, along with birthdays and anniversaries,” she shares. “When people come in, I want them to feel joy.”
In addition to her day-to-day brick-and-mortar operations, the entrepreneur also works a wide array of private events out of her Citroën trucks, from wedding to celebrations, football games and more. With this growth, she is quick to credit her small but spirited team of high school and college kids who comprise the Piccolina family.
“I keep telling these kids, if you can learn one thing from me, it’s don’t be afraid to try new things,” she shares. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you’re doing yet because you are going to figure it out.” Harman has learned that wisdom firsthand, betting on a dream and pushing through the challenges that life brought her way. “All the long hours here kept me going through a lot of things,” she says smiling. “This business saved me.”