Everybody knows Arnie’s Place.

It’s a staple of the Heights neighborhood landscape with its maroon facade, one of the small business oases that haven’t been swept into the river of national chains along Loudon Road.

That’s why Deb Casselberry wanted to buy it.

Growing up in Rochester, Casselberry always had a spiritual attachment to her local ice cream place, Lone Oak.

“It was just the place that everybody went. You always knew that if you went there, you’re gonna run into somebody you knew,” she said. “It was just a place to go and be happy — because who isn’t happy around ice cream?”

Arnie’s is a lot like that, Casselberry learned during her 13 years living in Bow. When she heard that it was going up for sale, she jumped at the chance. She bought the building in October, and will formally take the helm of the business at the start of the year.

“It’s always my dream to own an ice cream place,” she said. “I just want to help bring Arnie’s back to what it used to be before COVID.”

That means, to start, relaunching catering — which will be up and running in the coming weeks — and she’ll do it with former owner Kaitlyn Witts at her side as manager.

In 2019, Arnie’s founder Tom Arnold was looking for a succession plan. He found one in Witts.

With many staff, including her, having been around for more than a decade, Arnie’s was essentially a family business: it was only natural that it should stay in the family. Arnold continued on as a mentor from the sidelines and retained ownership of the building.

Then the pandemic hit.

Having only been open for a few weeks for the 2020 season, preparations for the year — both foodstuff and plans — had to go out the window. Witts’ three sons did online school from the red checkered dining room.

With outdoor seating and window service, Arnie’s was fortunate: It was able to reopen with some whiff of normalcy by the summer. But the things that had kept year-round, tenured employees on the payroll — most prominently catering — had to be cut.

With fewer returning employees to help train new ones each year, more and more fell squarely on Witts. After 25 years at Arnie’s, she began to burn out.

“This is a relief to me, because I do feel like it’s really going to get refreshed,” Witts said. “It means I can really get back to focusing on putting out good food products, doing more catering, being out in the community, things like that.”

Casselberry and Witts are friends: it’s how the former first got the idea of buying the place. Now, they’ll be partners, and Casselberry’s experience — 15 years of owning a Domino’s pizza franchise followed by eight years of insurance work — will combine with Witts’ under a shared vision.

For Arnold, this new chapter means fully stepping away from the business that was a part of him for almost three decades.

After years of long hours and weekends in the restaurant business, Arnold was ready to enjoy retirement, wintering in Florida and spending time with his three daughters and six grandchildren.

“I put my heart and soul into that place for 29 years,” he said. At 72, though, he “didn’t want to be a landlord anymore.”

But he wouldn’t have sold it to just anyone.

Once a type of business like Arnie’s is gone — a seasonal joint that still makes its own ice cream and barbecue — it’s unlikely to be replaced, he said. The sale to Casselberry worked out because she wants to protect that legacy.

“It seems to me that she has the ambition, the desire and the money to bring the place back to what it was, or to what it could be,” he said. “I think they’re going to do a great job.”

Casselberry wants to fold in updates: a customer loyalty program, connectivity with food delivery apps, and online ordering.

At the same time, if things go as planned, the years to come for Arnie’s will echo those gone by. Concord residents will be able to have Arnie’s at their birthday parties and graduations. Antique car shows could make their return. More youth sports teams will wear Arnie’s sponsored jerseys and have their photo framed on the dining room wall.

“We want to still keep the Arnie’s vibe going,” Casselberry said. “We want to continue his good name.”