Extreme Chocolate

Happy Solistice! After Thanksgiving I'd gotten out of the habit of doing regular ice cream shop explorations, but the days are getting longer and it seemed like a good time to visit the places that are staying open over the winter.

Today's shop is Moozy's, a corner shop in Belmont (right where Trapelo Road meets Belmont Street.) There are a bunch of outdoor tables and a half dozen indoor booths; the interior is dominated by a large ice cream counter, with a self-serve frozen yogurt bar tucked in one corner, and a burger and grill section on the far side.

Their ice cream menu includes Graham Central Station, Black Raspberry Chip, and Moose Tracks. Aside from the usual cups, cones, packed quarts and pints, they have Sundaes, Banana Splits, Frappes (including an Espresso Frappe), Floats, and Smoothies. For toppings they have a list of fresh fruit options, a range of Sundae toppings, and a "candy & crunchies" section including Real Chocolate "Jimmies"¹ and Heath Bar Pieces. They also have three sizes of Ice Cream Cake (custom orders need 48 hours notice, per their website.)

First Visit

I started with a sample of my friend's Eggnog (a christmas-season-only flavor.) Really strong, even a little bit tangy - very convincing eggnog ice cream with a rich base. Sufficiently strong that it overwhelmed my intended followup, the Peanut Butter Oreo - I made it about halfway through before the peanut butter taste actually stood up to the eggnog; though I don't think that would have been a problem by itself, maybe add the "creamy peanut butter" sundae topping if you want to go all in on peanut butter flavor.

The second half was their Extreme Chocolate, which earned the name - a rich chocolate base, chocolate chunks, and a dark chocolate sauce, delivering chocolate on multiple fronts. This was a much better flavor experience than the peanut butter oreo - no subtlety at all, and no need for it either.²

Wally's Wicked Good Ice Cream is in the Auburndale "village" of Newton, just northeast from where 128 and the Mass Pike cross (and not far from the Auburndale commuter rail stop.) It's a narrow store front tucked in next to a pizza place; a couple of indoor tables, but no sidewalk seating. I was there the day before Halloween - if their website is accurate they may have closed for the season after that.

Bright and cheerful interior¹ with counter service and a freezer. Aside from a couple of dozen ice cream flavors, they have frozen yogurt, sherbet, sorbet, italian ice; they also have lime rickeys, floats, frappes (with or without malt), and frozen lemonade. They also have cookie sandwiches and sundaes - mostly build-your-own but they had a "Fluffernutter Sundae" on the specials board.² Their Toppings board had a long list of candy, along with the usual nuts and sauces.

First Visit

I started with Extreme Chocolate, which was a rich, strongly flavored chocolate base, with brownie bits, chocolate chips/chunks and chocolate swirl completing the picture. It's an appropriate use of the term "Extreme", and if you're in the mood for chocolate, you can just get that and be satisfied.

Since I like to try at least two flavors, and I'm a big Thin Mints™ fan, I combined the Extreme Chocolate with Mint Chocolate Chip³ which was a good pairing. Clear mint flavor, without going all the way to Grasshopper.

Next Visit

I'm actually tempted by the Fluffernutter Sundae, but they also have Cookie Monster and Graham Central Station. They also have Moose Tracks and PB Oreo (they have five different oreo-based flavors plus a S'moreo Frappe, which is certainly a theme.) I'd also consider their Peach ice cream in summertime.

Getting There

Wally's comes across as the kind of place you'd mostly want to walk to (possibly after pizza next door) but Newton is the beginning of the high density/high traffic/insane road design "inner suburbs" of Boston, and being so close to the Pike⁴ it looks on the map like a "you can't get there from here" sort of place. Once you do get there, even the road it's directly on is under construction.

The trick is to go down Melrose Ave - the little side road just south of the shop - where you'll find a bunch of parking and several GreenSpot electric car chargers. If they're full you can continue to Melrose St and make two lefts back on to Auburn St which has street parking.