Pulaski’s Casimir’s is located in a ‘sweet spot’

Rich Palzewic

Staff

July 28, 2025

PULASKI – Location, location, location.

Ben Reis, owner of Casimir’s Sweet Spot in Pulaski (759 S. Saint Augustine St.), said the shop’s location was the ultimate factor in deciding what type of business he and his wife, Wendy, would run in the former dentist’s office.

“Memorial Park is nearby,” he said. “There are always soccer, baseball and softball games there. Many players and parents from those teams stop by after their games. You’ve also got Pulaski High School two blocks away, the middle school one block over and an elementary school three blocks away.”

And when school starts in a little more than a month, Reis said the traffic in the area will increase even more.

“Essentially, for most of the year, you’ve got 2,000 kids walking or driving on S. Saint Augustine Street,” he said. “When we saw the building, my wife said, ‘That’s a great location – we should do something with it.’ The location inspired the idea of opening a business. If you’re from Pulaski, [you know that] so much of the traffic in the area comes up and down this street.”

Because the location was “perfect,” Reis said the couple didn’t even look at other possible options.

“This property was the one – the one that inspired our business dreams,” he said. “I’d say we reverse-engineered it a little bit. We had the location and then brainstormed an idea of what would fit it.”

Beginning operations about six weeks ago, Reis said the timing of opening Casimir’s was also “perfect.”

“The weather has been very conducive to ice cream,” he laughed. “We had our grand opening, the Fourth of July and then Pulaski Polka Days – three events that got us off on the right foot.”

As a proud Pulaski small business, Reis said as time goes on, he and his wife plan to sponsor local sports teams.

“That’s really the only marketing plan we have – supporting the community and supporting families,” he said. “With our location [next to Memorial Park and the schools nearby], we know that will be a big part of our business. I would also love to collaborate with local businesses where it might fit.”

Lots of work needed

Reis said a lot of work went into remodeling the former dentist’s office – describing the project as a complete gut job.

“There is only one interior wall remaining,” he said. “There were eight original rooms in the building, so we ended up moving the bathrooms, knocking down walls, creating a commercial kitchen space, putting in a new ceiling, changing the lighting, putting up new walls and putting in new flooring.”

Reis said a lot of work was also done in the basement of the building.

“When you have a dentist office, every room has copper pipes for water, nitrous, air, a sink, etc.,” he said. “I’d say there was probably about 500 feet of copper that was cut out of the plumbing. Everything had to be rerouted. Our utility closet was once an X-ray room. It took a lot of work.”

Reis said they closed on the building in mid-January, and renovation work began shortly thereafter.

“We put our offer in on the building in May 2024 – finding a banking partner wasn’t easy,” he said. “Once everything was secured and we closed on the building, then the real work began.”

A changed vision

Originally, Reis said they planned to open a coffee shop.

“With the layout of the building, the inability to realistically put in a drive-through, the overhead of the coffee equipment, etc., we pivoted to an ice cream/candy store,” he said. “We loved the idea of a coffee shop, but when we crunched the numbers, they weren’t good enough for a bank to say ‘yes.’ In August 2024, we ended up switching our business concept.”

Reis said ironically, he’s not much of a candy eater.

“We explored a few different options over several months and eventually found this location,” he said. “It’s kind of ironic that we opened an ice cream/candy store in a former dentist’s office.” 

What’s in a name?

Reis said the name of the shop – Casimir’s Sweet Spot – is an ode to Casimir Pulaski, who the village is named after.

“I was a high school history teacher at one point, so I enjoy the backstory of Pulaski and its founding,” he said. “We wanted a classic name and something timeless – nothing hokey… We love the city we live in and wanted to open a business that represents our community.”

A quick online search shows that Casimir Pulaski was a Polish nobleman, soldier and military commander.  

“Casimir Pulaski is known as the ‘Father of the American Cavalry,’” Reis said. “He is credited with saving George Washington’s life in the Battle of Brandywine in 1777.”

Options galore

Reis said patrons will find a variety of Manitowoc-based Cedar Crest Ice Cream in the front freezers at Casimir’s.

He said the Wisconsin-made ice cream fits perfectly into his vision of “keeping it local.”

“We’ve been insanely busy in our first [six weeks] open,” he said. “I’d say I’ve been ordering 25-30 three-gallon tubs a week. Families were ready for something like this.”

With the shop’s three-door freezer and other cooling systems, Reis said “we’ve probably got room for 100 tubs if needed.”

“It’s crazy to think we might ever need that much, but if we stock it, people will come,” he said.

Reis said smoothies, soft-serve ice cream, milkshakes and other novelty ice cream products are also available.

“We want to keep prices down the best we can and keep it family-friendly,” he said.

Reis said customers will also find selections of freeze-dried candy in the store.

“You won’t find food options, though,” he said. “We want to stay true to who we are, so I think that’s ice cream, smoothies, freeze-dried candy and other ice cream products. We want our identity to be known as a sweet shop. We don’t want to do too many different things at once. Down the road, if our concept proves to not be sufficient, we could always revisit that.”

Starting a business, Reis said, is not for the faint of heart.

“There are days I leave at 1 a.m. and come back at 5 a.m. to do things,” he said. “I’ve got a wife and young children, and it’s been a grind. The payoff will definitely be there, but launching everything hasn’t been easy. We’ve been super busy – and I’m not complaining about that – but we thought we’d have some time to put everything together a bit more.”

Reis said eventually, Casimir’s would like to ship its freeze-dried products around the country via online orders.

“We’re starting with some basic candies to freeze dry, but then we’ll get a bit more adventurous,” he said. “Primarily, we’ll freeze-dry what sells well. There are a lot of freeze-drying nerds out there – people who really geek out about new and interesting things. We’ll eventually get there, but we won’t start there.”

Purchasing a commercial freeze-drying unit, Reis said, made offering freeze-dried candy possible for Casimir’s Sweet Spot.

“With our first batch of freeze-drying Skittles – which we call Rainberry Bites – that was 24 pounds,” he said. “I think we’ll eventually add some of our ‘heavy hitters’ into our soft-serve ice cream as well.”

Ice cream in the winter?

With temperatures routinely in the high 80s this summer, it can be easy to forget about what’s around the corner – winter.

The colder months, Reis said, will most likely see the shift away from a lot of ice cream sales and more into the candy options.

“I expect a dip in ice cream sales,” he said. “People have asked me, ‘Are you going to start selling coffee?’ The answer is ‘no.’ We’re really going to ramp up our freeze-dried candy options. If we get our name out there for our candy selection, that should help.”

Reis said there are opportunities available with different candies being offered at various times of the year.

“You have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter,” he said. “There are opportunities out there – we just have to find them. We’re optimistic we can make up for the dip in ice cream sales through our freeze-dried options.”

Reis said there is also free Wi-Fi and plenty of space inside for customers to hang out.

“We’re finding that the last three or four hours of us being open have pretty well been packed,” he said. “It seems like it’s becoming a nice place to hang out.”

Casimir’s Sweet Spot is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

For more, visit the shop’s Facebook page.