Reasons To Be Cheerful Means Ice Cream

It could be all in the product he’s taste-testing. But in fact, Wade Rubinstein is a man on a mission.

He’s ridden his bike through miles of wintry byways from Garfield Road to Commonwealth Avenue with one thing in mind: bringing homemade ice cream to West Concord.

“I love ice cream,” said Rubinstein for the first of many times during a recent conversation at the Gatehouse on Commonwealth Avenue. The shop will be the home of Reasons To Be Cheerful, a dessert café to open in Summer 2011.

The former high-tech worker has been thinking about the food business since the early 1990s. He’d looked at many spaces particularly in West Concord.

“The mix of residential, industrial, and retail here is unique. There’s a lot of fun energy,” said Rubinstein. 

Then he learned that the Gatehouse building was for rent. “I love this strip; having Debra’s Natural Gourmet as a neighbor. The space has charm and West Concord wants ice cream, so I thought, ‘let’s make it happen.'” He filed his application with the Concord last week.

Twenty-eight flavors of ice cream will be made on the premises, available in bulk as well as in cones and cups, but there’s more. Frozen yogurt, crepes, and pastries made right there, along with locally roasted coffee will be available too.

“There’ll be a taste for every moment of the day,” said Rubinstein, perhaps hitting on a new tag line. The ice cream maker and baker will be one and the same, and he envisions his kids, who helped with taste-tests, scooping the ice cream.

Rubinstein, a 23-year Concord resident, is supporting other local businesses as he builds his. Concord’s Mahoney Architects, run by husband-wife architectural team Paul and Leslie Mahoney, are helping shape the interior, which will include banquet seating, and the lower level designed as a “getaway space.” Levers Advertising & Design also of Concord designed the Reasons to be Cheerful logo. Levers also created the graphic identity for the Fowler Library expansion’s fundraising campaign.

The Gatehouse building, owned by owner Maynard Forbes, was renovated in 1975, with the Gatehouse business begun by Forbes and his wife, Jean in 1995. Stephanie Bunker Shepard bought the business in 2004 where it remained until she moved the business to 14 Walden Street, renaming it Hatch. 

Reasons To Be Cheerful will accessible from both Commonwealth Avenue and from John Forbes Way, the charming brick alley between the two buildings. “We’ll have benches there and on the front porch,” said Rubinstein.

Forbes is pleased. “I have been talking with Wade for about five or six months about the ice cream business. I look forward to homemade ice cream. This business is certainly another reason for people to come to West Concord. It’s a win-win.”

Wade Rubinstein wants to hear from the community of ice cream lovers and others through his blog www.cheerfulmusings.com.