Rita’s Brand Guidelines: A 1984 Bensalem Water Ice Stand, Custard and a Spring Giveaway

A former firefighter’s stand outside Philadelphia.

Rita’s began as a small Italian ice business in the Philadelphia suburbs. The company says that in the summer of 1984 Bob Tumolo, a former Philadelphia firefighter, opened the business on his front porch to add to his income, and named it after his wife, Rita. Philadelphia magazine, reporting on the chain’s 30th anniversary in May 2014, gave the opening date as 4 May 1984 and placed the original stand in the Andalusia section of Bensalem Township, on the side of a house on Bristol Pike opposite what was then the Woodhaven Mall.

The product was what Philadelphians call water ice. English Wikipedia says the chain was originally known as Rita’s Water Ice and still is informally, and that it first advertised its product under that regional name before using “Italian ice,” the term more common elsewhere in the United States. The 2014 Philadelphia article made the same point at length: whatever the cups say, locals still call it water ice.

Growth was slow at first. According to the same article, Rita’s had three locations in 1987, began franchising in 1989 and reached 100 stores by 1996. English Wikipedia adds that the headquarters moved from Bensalem to Trevose, Pennsylvania, in April 2007. The 2014 anniversary celebration drew about a hundred people to the original Bensalem site, where the first 30 guests in line were served by local officials and Jeff Moody, then president and chief executive, was on hand.

Private equity owners, one after another.

Rita’s has changed hands several times. Philadelphia magazine reported in 2014 that the chain had 322 stores when McKnight Capital Partners bought it in 2005; a 2017 report in the same magazine dated that first purchase by private investors to 2004. In 2011 Falconhead Capital took control, and under that owner Rita’s opened its first store in California in 2013 and, by the 2014 report, had locations in Canada and China; English Wikipedia dates the opening in Shenzhen, China, to 2013.

In January 2017 Philadelphia magazine reported that Argosy Private Equity, of Wayne, Pennsylvania, and MTN Capital, of New York, had announced plans to buy a controlling stake in Rita’s Franchise Company; English Wikipedia records the purchase as made that month. The magazine then counted more than 600 locations in 30 states and four countries, including the Philippines, China and Canada. It reported that Jeff Moody would stay on as president and chief executive, that a founding partner of Argosy would become chairman of the board, and that under Falconhead the company had announced plans in 2015 to open in gas stations and convenience stores.

The most recent change came in January 2025. Restaurant Dive and Restaurant Business both reported on 9 January 2025 that Maple Park Capital Partners, a newly formed private-equity firm that invests in consumer and experience businesses, had bought a majority stake; terms were not disclosed. Restaurant Business named Andrew Lauck and Alexander Blankfein as the firm’s co-founders and reported that the company runs a network of Italian ice shops and kiosks, each of them operated by a franchisee. Both put the chain at about 575 locations in 30 states, with some international shops, and named Linda Chadwick as chief executive. Restaurant Dive reported that the chain was growing into new regions, including Texas and Michigan, and that its shops are typically small sites with walk-up windows, with an option to add a drive-through.

Design and documentation.

Ice cream, gelato and frozen-yogurt chains sell something that melts within minutes, so much of their identity sits in the shop itself. The counter, the cabinet of flavours, the cone and the cup are the brand’s most visible surfaces, and the companies’ own pages tend to describe their shops, their kitchens and their ingredients before anything else.

Serving style can become a signature. Amorino, the Paris gelato chain, shapes its gelato into a flower with a spatula, according to French Wikipedia, and in 2012 the business magazine Capital described its shops in tobacco tones rather than the bright white then common among its rivals. The guides in this series look at how each chain describes its own counters, cups and cones, in the words the companies publish.

Names carry a lot of the work. Gelato chains may keep Italian flavour names on their menus, as Capital reported of Amorino, and some chains tie their story to one place. Grom, the Turin gelateria, describes its history through a single founding square, Piazza Paleocapa, and a single central laboratory near the city, and says its shops churn the gelato each day.

Ownership is part of the story too. Some chains grow through franchising, some stay with their founders, and others pass into large groups: Unilever announced its purchase of Grom in 2015, and Grom says it has been part of The Magnum Ice Cream Company since 2025. Each guide in this series sets out who founded the brand, who owns it now and where its products are made, and marks clearly what rests on the company’s own word.

“Ice Custard Happiness.”

The brand’s line is “Ice Custard Happiness,” which the company calls its way of life. It says each shop is individually owned and operated by a local franchisee, and that its Italian ice is made fresh daily at each location from a rotating list of flavours. Alongside Italian ice it sells frozen custard, gelati, which layer the two, concretes, frozen coffee, blended drinks and milkshakes, Restaurant Dive reported in 2025. The company says most shops open in March and close in September, while shopping-mall shops and many in warmer states trade all year.

Its signature ritual is a free Italian ice on the first day of spring. The company calls it a Rita’s tradition kept for more than 25 years; Philadelphia magazine dated the giveaway to 1992. Flavour tie-ins with candy and biscuit brands are part of the menu: English Wikipedia lists a Swedish Fish ice from 2009, a Peeps marshmallow flavour first offered in 2010 and a Sour Patch Kids flavour from 2012, and the 2014 Philadelphia article named mango as the chain’s top-selling flavour, with Swedish Fish in the top five. English Wikipedia counted 594 restaurants in 30 states as of June 2025. The chain has also offered an “Alex’s Lemonade” ice with the children’s charity Alex’s Lemonade Stand, English Wikipedia says. Its 30th-anniversary event in 2014 was held at the original Bensalem stand, with the Rita’s Ice Guy mascot.

For a design guide, Rita’s shows how a regional word, a seasonal calendar and a walk-up window can carry a franchise far from its home town. Compare Carvel, another East Coast soft-serve chain, and Dairy Queen, a franchise built on soft serve and frozen treats. For this guide we use a cherry red, a lemon cream and a mint green with a rounded sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Rita’s’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.