Stores eye Main Street

Gil and Bert’s Ice Cream Shop and The Blue Rooster Bakery and Café look to open soon

By: Lacey Korevec
   Two new businesses are hoping to open on Main Street before the end of the year.
   By late August, Cranbury could welcome Gil and Bert’s Ice Cream Shop and by the end of the year, The Blue Rooster Bakery and Café could open.
   The ice cream shop’s owners, Christine Ondocin and her husband, Robert Irving, received minor site plan approval in June to convert the front of their 69 N. Main St. home into a walk-up ice cream stand. The Blue Rooster Bakery and Café, owned by Karen and Bob Finigan, is awaiting minor site plan final approval from the Planning Board before it renovates and opens at 17 N. Main St.
   Ms. Ondocin, Mr. Irving, and their family moved into their North Main Street home just over a year ago and decided shortly after that they should turn their front living room window into a walk-up ice cream window.
   "Late last summer, he brought me into the front living room and said, ‘Wouldn’t this make a great ice cream shop?’ " Ms. Ondocin said, recalling a conversation she had with her husband. "I said, ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘Want to open an ice cream shop?’ That was kind of the seed and we’ve just been slowly plotting and planning."
   They expect the shop to be up and running in time for the end of summer.
   The building’s front window is nearly perfect for an ice cream stand and will only have to go through small renovations. In addition, Ms. Ondocin said the family is seeking approval to add an awning to the front of the house soon.
   Beverly and Craig Gilbert, who owned the house for over 25 years before Ms. Ondocin’s family bought it, were the inspiration for the shop’s name.
   It will feature homemade ice cream from Ummm Ice Cream Parlor in Burlington. The shop will offer 12 flavors at first and two toppings: sprinkles and walnuts. Ms. Ondocin said the family wants to keep it simple at first and see what direction residents want the shop to go in before adding more.
   She said the shop’s season will run from April to October.
   Plainsboro residents Karen and Bob Finigan bought the home located at 17 N. Main St. in May with hopes of turning it into The Blue Rooster, a full-service café and bread bakery that residents could walk to and gather at to eat and socialize.
   The minor site plan is expected to be voted on by the Planning Board Thursday. According to Planning Board Member James Golubieski, the site needs approval because the owner wants to operate a business on a residential property.
   Ms. Finigan, who was raised in Cranbury but hasn’t lived in the township for 35 years, said she and her husband have every reason to expect that The Blue Rooster will be approved Thursday and will be open by the end of the year so that residents can enjoy fresh croissants, baguettes, quiches, cupcakes, cookies, tarts, and tea as well as a full breakfast and lunch menu.
   "We feel like there’s a lot of support in the community for what we want to do," she said. "And the board has been very helpful with their suggestions and advice. They’ve been very positive."
   But between now and opening day, Ms. Finigan and her husband will be busy refurbishing the house. They plan to paint the inside walls and finish the wood floors, which were previously carpeted.
   The house’s current kitchen will be made into a waitress prep station, but aside from that, none of the rooms will be drastically changed to preserve the historic feel of the building, Ms. Finigan said.
   "It’s just perfect for the business model we have," Ms. Finigan said of the house. "And everyone we know seems to think so too. So we’re hoping it will work well."
   Customers will be able to sit on the porch or on benches along Main Street. There also will informal seating inside by the retail bakery and more formal seating on the right, inside section of the house, where residents can have afternoon tea, Ms. Finigan said.
   The upstairs will hold a children’s room that community members can reserve for children’s birthday parties and a community meeting room that will be open to the public free of charge, Ms. Finigan said.
   "We really want to cater to the walking people in town," she said. We’re hoping it becomes a place where people can just stop in. It will be casual."