North Reading
This is my 20th ice cream review! There's a long way to go to hit every ice cream shop in Massachusetts, but I think this is a pretty good start, having only been at it for a month...
After a trip to Luna Rossa (a fine Italian Restaurant with particularly good Arancini) I forewent coffee and Tiramisu to go try another ice cream shop: Big Dipper in North Reading. Another late evening visit, though this place has flood lights covering the picnic benches in addition to the generous lighting of the serving counter and menu signs. Be sure to take note of all of the signs - aside from a permanently-printed menu, they've got a whiteboard of specials and a whiteboard of "things on the permanent menu that they're out of". (Having it on a sign is a huge help, especially when you're combining flavors and might want to change both parts even though only one is missing; that said, I'm still a little disappointed at not getting to try Espresso Toffee Crunch.)
They do advertise soft serve, frozen yogurt, and vegan options, as well as hotdogs and slush.
First Visit
Once I saw "Everything Chocolate" on the menu, the main challenge was finding something to pair with it; "Espresso Toffee Crunch" would have been great (and probably satisfied a little bit of the after-dinner coffee craving) but that was out of stock. "Peanut Butter Caramel Cookie Dough" worked well - different texture, chocolate and peanut butter always pair well, and anything subtle would have been lost next to the Everything Chocolate... not that Big Dipper has anything subtle; the only flavors with less than a paragraph of description were plain "Banana" and "Coffee". (Most of the names aren't short either.)
Flavors to try next time - Espresso Toffee Crunch, "Big Dipper" itself, and Campfire S'mores. (There are a bunch of restaurant options in that area, it is a good choice for dessert at least while they're still on summer hours.) Also their "Southern Peach" sounds like a good summer option if I'm looking for something a little simpler (but it would need to compete with the peach ice cream I make at home.)
The entire side of the building is an ice cream themed mural (even the dog has a "ripple" name tag); the colors in this picture are mostly "samsung doing battle with artificial lighting" but per their own website the background really is the bright purple color of their logo.