(Photo Courtesy of Samantha Goselin)
F&F Sweet Bar located on Pawtucket Street, Lowell MA.
Samantha Goselin
Connector Contributor
The Fortune and Flame Sweet Bar had its grand opening September 17. The ice cream and dessert shop is located on Pawtucket Street, just walking distance from UMass Lowell’s South Campus. They offer a variety of different ice cream flavors, along with an assortment of foods such as brownies, pies, cookies and shortcakes. The sweet bar is conveniently located for students to relax and grab a quick study break snack.
Jason Viteri is the owner of this establishment and also owns Fortune and Flame Kitchen and Catering in Dracut, MA. Having this background in catering, Viteri wanted to incorporate Fortune and Flame into their new shop, hence its similar name.
Hannah Lutz, a native of Lowell who grew up going to Burbecks, an ice cream shop that used to be located on that lot, says, “it felt like such a shame that the lot was vacant for a few years.” Having experience managing an ice cream shop, Hannah thought it would be a great idea to get this local spot more popular. Viteri says, “I had been looking for a place to expand catering and saw this spot. Hannah had the experience of managing ice cream shops herself and thought it’d be a good idea to continue [the] legacy of the location.”
“I wanted to make sure to have what people actually wanted and not just have a lot of flavors,” says Lutz, “so I reached out on Facebook and said, ‘tell me your favorite ice cream flavor’- anything answered more than twice was put on the menu.” After gaining quite a few responses, they were able to gauge what would be the most popular flavors and what would be received well by their customers. Some flavors were things they hadn’t considered and ended up being the most popular flavors in the neighborhood. “Our most popular item is for sure the brownie sundae,” says Lutz.
Not having done a lot of advertising to college students, Lutz says, “word of mouth has really helped, but I know that we aren’t even touching the surface.” However, some UMass Lowell students haven’t been missing out on the variety of cold treats this ice cream shop has to offer. “I tried F&F Sweet Bar for the first time the day I moved into school,” says junior elementary education major, Rachel Belliveau, “I really enjoyed it. It’s nice to have an ice cream place so close by.”
With the end of summer, and fall quickly approaching, the customers’ desire for ice cream has been declining. However, The Fortune and Flame Sweet Bar is working on new ways to keep the colder months busy. “Business has been slowing down since the fall started, so we are trying to come up with things we can sell to stay open,” says Lutz. “One of our plans being to invite food trucks to come and park on our lot so we can build a relationship in the neighborhood.” The F&F Sweet Bar is located on Pawtucket Street across from Sheehy Park. Open Monday to Friday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.
