"With the economy how it is, the more small businesses band together, the more likely we are to see the other side of this thing."
That's Michele Lavis-White, co-owner of Fair Trade Cafe, the globally conscious coffee shop with two locations in Phoenix, talking about her recent partnership with Jesse Robinson, founder of The Sweetness, a new artisan ice cream shop set to open inside Fair Trade's First Avenue and Roosevelt location this Friday.
Robinson, who lived in Boston for seven years, says he wanted to open his own place when he moved back to Phoenix and found a lack of a locally owned ice cream shops downtown. The original plan was to open his own shop, but Robinson and Lavis-White came up with the idea that The Sweetness could be located inside Fair Trade instead.
The Sweetness will serve home made ice cream using quality ingredients, use Fair Trade's coffee for its coffee ice cream, and will stay open late -- Thursday through Saturday from 2 p.m. until 2 a.m. and Sundays from 2 p.m. until midnight.
