Johnson's Restaurant and Dairy Bar is on 225, about 10 minutes outside 495 - if you're driving anyway, it's not too far from the O'Neil Cinemas movie theater in Littleton. I first found it on one of my summer convertible trips - 225 and 119 meander north west, where you can pick up 202 to meander back south, optimizing for scenery (and avoiding cities.) Even before you get to the Quabbin Reservoir, this is the part of the state where the towns are outnumbered by "Wildlife Management Areas." However, I mostly remember the convenience of the location, I have no idea (and no pictures of) what ice cream I got (or what year it was.)

The spot is surrounded by parking, and has a bunch of outdoor picnic tables (some around back with umbrellas.) There's also some partially-dismantled seating on the hillside which is probably available in the summertime. There's also a bunch of indoor seating, both tables and benches. There are two outdoor ice cream windows, and an indoor counter for ice cream and a lengthy grill menu¹. They're open all week over the winter, but Monday through Wednesday they close down after lunch.

Aside from a lengthy ice cream menu, they have a couple of flavors each of soft serve, frozen yogurt, sherbert, and dairy free sorbet. They also have ice cream pies and sundaes. They have the usual toppings, including marshmallow and Sprinkles (not Jimmies.)

The Ice Cream

This is the first place (out of almost 50 reviews!) where ordering a cup half one flavor, half the other, got me a cup split down the middle so I could start wherever I wanted or go back and forth. Kudos to the server; worth the extra effort, and not just because I only needed to take one picture! (To be fair, I wouldn't blame them if used the faster top/bottom scoop approach at busier times; this was an evening visit in early November, there were only a couple of people there the whole time I was.)

The left half was a brightly colored Butter Crunch - not as bright as the neon yellow Butter Crunch at Chelmsford Creamery - this one was definitely "not vanilla" in color and had a distinctly buttery taste as well. Not a lot of crunch bits, but the flavor was definitely enough.

The right half was a flavor called "Scooby Snax" - they have a few "mystery" flavors like "Suzanna Banana" and "Hawaiian Supreme", fortunately the servers have the descriptions handy - this one was a vanilla base with mini peanut butter cups, cookies, chocolate, and fudge sauce. Lots of texture, lots of flavor - though I think they should consider a chocolate- or coffee-based version of this one, I was happy with it, and it was a good pairing with butter crunch.

Next Time

Other flavors that caught my eye included "Coffee Heath Bar", "Salted Caramel Cookie Dough Chip", and "Frozen Pudding". The "Hawaiian Supreme" sounds like it might be a good choice for summertime, but I didn't get to ask what was in it, and their website has been untouched² since 2013 - and only has the meal menus, doesn't have any of the ice cream flavors anyhow.

Mac's Dairy Farm is on 38 in Tewksbury - about five miles north of Dandi-Lyons (the Tewksbury one, not Dandi-Lyons in Reading.) It has lots of parking in front and more in back, plus a bunch of picnic tables. They have four serving windows under their yellow-lit awning¹ and there seemed to be an indoor counter as well, but that might be for winter use - or might not, the top picture on their website shows their serving windows open to a snowy parking lot, although all the picnic tables are stowed away.

They have a lengthy but familiar-looking hard ice cream list (their website advertises that they serve Richardson's ice cream) but they also have soft serve (twist but no dip), sundaes, Richie's slush, frappes/sodas/floats, yogurt, sherbet, sorbet, and Raspberry Lime Rickey. They also sell hand packed quarts/pints/half-gallons, but you can also get a pint of fudge (or other toppings.) They don't have a "tasting flight" but they do have "Mac's Mountain" 4-scoop sundae.

They also have seasonal flavors - for fall, "Apple Crisp", "Pumpkin", and "Pumpkin Oreo".

Tucked away in a corner of the feature menu they list soft serve "pup cups" which I don't think I've noticed before - I'll start keeping an eye out for it, though.

First Visit

I started with Butter Crunch (nice creamy base - though given the lighting, I have no idea if it matched the bright yellow color of Chelmsford Creamery's Butter Pecan - and properly "crunchable" sugar bits.) I paired that with Totally Turtle - vanilla with cashews, brownie chunks, and caramel swirl - which is a good "lots of stuff" flavor which matches the one I enjoyed at Dandi-Lyons.

On a return visit, their Death By Chocolate and Crunch-a-Saurus are pretty high on the list - I should get around to trying a blue vanilla some time, having seen it at several places now - and possibly the Green Monster or Campfire S'moores². The "Mac's Mountain" is also something to keep in mind next time I'm prepared for a lot of ice cream, probably not after dinner though. (If I'm back soon enough the Apple Crisp fall-seasonal flavor looks intriguing but it's one of those things that could be great, could be a soggy mess, definitely have to be in an adventurous mood to try it out.)

After dining at The Cask And Pig (excellent brisket, and novel appetizers like Spicy Deviled Eggs and Hanging Bacon) in Dartmouth, my friends decided that "we should go generate content for your blog" so we ended up at The Ice Cream Cottage in Fairhaven.¹ The Cottage is tucked in down some one-way streets a block in from the waterfront. Smaller than most - one order window and one pickup window under an overhang, a public lot across the street, one bench (the breakfast shop next door² also has a bunch of benches and closes at 5pm, seemed like a popular overflow spot.) Opened in 2023 on the site of the former Brady's Ice Box.

We got lucky, this was the last weekend they were open late, and after Labor Day they're only open on weekends.

First Visit

The Cottage has a medium-length list of flavors, plus soft serve (twist, but no dip cones), dairy free and sugar free flavors. (The article on their own website credits Acushnet Creamery, about 4 miles up river, for the ice cream itself.)

They also have a 4-scoop "Ice Cream Flight" (seen previously at West Side Creamery), Hawaiian Shave Ice, frappes, floats, and Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches. (Also hot dogs.)

I had a cup of Coffee Oreo Cookie with Butter Crunch underneath. Reasonably strong coffee flavor, and the butter crunch was actually crunchable (in some versions, the crunch bits are too hard to actually bite down on, these were fine.) On a future visit I'll probably try the Hawaiian Shave Ice, especially if it's still hot out; otherwise the Espresso Brownie Fudge, Mocha Peanut Butter, and S'mores are on the short list. They also list a Very New England "Cranberry Harvest" - one hopes that hip waders are not required for serving it.

One of the places I go for wildlife photography and exercise is Wachusett Dam, in Clinton - convenient parking on Route 62 at the top of the dam, and a pair of 250ish step staircases down into the basin and back up the far side. (There's also a more gentle but much longer access road if you're at the bottom and find the stairs overwhelming - which is also a prettier path if it's Fall and the leaves have started changing.)

Turns out that the closest ice cream place is Rota Spring Farm (around the northwest side of the lake - on what is basically a shortcut from 110 back to 62, which you can take to 190 to 2 and be directly on the fast path back to Boston; alternatively, if you're doing the Fall Tourist thing, Davis Megamaze is right there too.) Plenty of parking, the shop itself is a couple of serving windows under an overhang, with another window for hotdogs and subs, as well as a "farm stand" shop. Lots of picnic tables (including a handful under an overhang) with a very New England-scenic view of the adjacent farm with cows and goats (the farm is down a small hill and wasn't a strong smell, but it had just rained for 20 minutes before I arrived.)

First Visit

One thing that the more interesting ice cream places have in common is concocting their own flavor mixes, and naming them. While at this point things like "Moose Tracks" (vanilla ice cream, chocolate swirl, chocolate chunks) and "Green Monster" (mint chocolate chip with chocolate cookies) are reasonably consistent across the state, more advanced combinations need more of an explanation. While the server was happy to explain "Ruby's & Onyx" (chocolate chip with maraschino cherries) when I asked, they also had a detail menu with all explanations (right next to the serving window - I didn't notice it before I asked, but that's on me.)

I ordered a large, and since that's three scoops the server asked which one I wanted more of - which ended up with me getting three flavors instead of my usual two: Butter Crunch, Graham Central Station, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl.

The butter crunch was actually "crunchable" - sometimes the crunch bits are too solid to safely bite down on, this didn't have that problem. The ice cream itself was good - not as strong as the Bright Yellow variant from Chelmsford Creamery but that was unique; this one was fine, and the "crunch" part was far above average.

Graham Central Station (which as a train geek I picked just for the name as anything) turns out to be a Graham Cracker Ice Cream with chocolate-covered graham cracker pieces - which turned out to be a better "S'mores" ice cream than any of the ones I've had so far that were trying to be. They should add a sundae that's just this, a dollop of marshmallow sauce, and wave a torch over it for ten seconds.

Finally, the Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl. This is one of those where the peanut butter makes the chocolate taste more chocolate (or maybe decades of Reese's ads have eaten my brain.)

In the future when I go for three flavors they probably shouldn't all be complicated multi-component ones, but they're so tempting...

Future Visits

I'll definitely try Cowabunga Crunch, Coffee Oreo or Cappuccino Chip, and Maine Wild Blueberry. They also have meatball and roast beef subs made from "[their] own grass fed beef" but the non-ice cream bits of the shop close down at 7 so it would need to be an earlier visit.

Alternately "Kimball Farm Ice Cream at Bates Farm" or "Kimball Farm Carlisle" (there are a couple of others including the huge place in Westford with Miniature Golf) this is one of those that you stumble on when driving through "back roads" but still trying to get somewhere - it's on 225, not far from the Concord River (which serves as the Carlisle/Bedford border.)

Lots of parking and some kid-oriented farm entertainment (literally, they have goats.) Picnic tables, some shaded; they also host a Farmer's Market on summer weekends.

Good dense ice cream in traditional flavors; I stop in when I happen to be relaxing on those particular back roads (the Bedford Boat Ramp is actually a good birding spot when there isn't a lot of boat or fishing traffic.) Most recent visit: ½ Butter Crunch and ½ Maple Walnut, solid classics; my friend had a Strawberry Ice Cream Soda. (Their menu also includes Vegan (coconut based) and Sugar-Free options, which I will not be reporting on further.)

It's one of your New England classics - you might not have been looking for it, but if you drive by and think "Hmm, I could go for some ice cream" you will not be disappointed, and it's big enough that it won't be too crowded in the summertime. I've been stopping at Kimball Farms on and off since 2007, and was there most recently this past weekend.