Green Monster
Truly's is in Wellesley Square, pretty much in the middle of town (though it still manages to have a decent amount of street parking1.) Lots of outdoor picnic tables and benches, plus a tiny amount of indoor seating - which went entirely unused anyway, on this unseasonably warm November evening. They even have their own Truly's-branded2 "Big Belly" solar compactor next to the benches, which is actually a pretty good way to encourage customers to clean up after themselves3. The location is also a five minute walk from the Wellesley Square4 commuter rail station, and is even closer to the Smith & Wollensky5 steakhouse.
This was a late night "oh look, they're actually open until 9pm" get-out-of-the-house roadtrip; as such my store front pictures are only marginally lit, but even bad pictures make an important point: Google Street View here is so out of date that it's actively wrong, even though they claim the last driveby was in 20226. There is now one storefront (boarded up in streetview) and the "Truly's Curbside/Truly Yogurt" storefront is gone, replaced with fancy "under construction" window art and an awning labelling the construction as the future site of Truly's Catering.
The primary ice cream menu is fairly short, though the frozen yogurt menu is nearly half that length; they also have a few sorbets, a sherbert, one no-sugar-added flavor, soft serve, sundaes and frappes. Their non-infringing weather-named soft serve plus mixin desserts are called Flurries. They also have FoMu vegan non-dairy "plant based" options. They also have tea, coffee, and enough of an espresso bar to make Affogatos ("your choice but we recommend vanilla".)
Notably, one of their specialty Frappes is The Pick-Me-Up, which the website describes as Cold Brew plus vanilla ice cream plus caramel drizzle - similar to one of Mad Maggie's cold brew features.
Toppings include Gummy Bears, Pop Rocks, and Malt; they also have Chocolate and Rainbow Sprinkles, but no Jimmies.
Do take a look in the freezers - aside from them just being bright and colorful (that Cake Batter is an almost Neon Yellow) they also have flavors that don't appear on the board, like the Death By Chocolate and Pumpkin Oreo in this shot.
First Visit
I started with Toll House - vanilla with chocolate chip cookies, rather than cookie dough, still very sweet but also a little crunchy. Very creamy ice cream, they may not have a lot of flavors but they seem to be doing a good job of them.
The second half was the Boston-themed Green Monster - mint with oreos and fudge swirl. Nice strong mint (enough to overpower the Toll House entirely, but that's why it was a good second half) and a generous proportion of cookies and fudge sauce. If you're in a mint mood it would be a choice as a standalone flavor.
Next Visit
I might try an Affogato next time, with Mocha Chip or Totally Turtle; a Pick-Me-Up is another possibility. If I'm just getting ice cream, then Pistachio or Death By Chocolate have caught my eye; at a different time of year, the Phantomberry might also be interesting: "Made for our friends at the Phantom Gourmet... Black raspberry ice cream with a cookie crunch swirl and fudge brownie pieces" sounds like an interesting set of textures in a strong summer flavor.
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I didn't find nearby public parking like Wally's Wicked Good had though panning out on google maps found the Weston Road Parking Lot only a ten minute walk away. It's just that there was cheap but metered parking all along Grove Street (which took apps, SMS, and actual coins) with a 2hr limit, so all I had to do was turn the car around to face the correct direction. ↩
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"Truly's 💟 you. Love us back and dispose of your trash!" ↩
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The compactor is marketed as storing five times as much trash as a normal can of the same size; usually the energy consumption is compared against "how often a garbage truck needs to show up", but the immediately visible benefit is that it also "phones home" before full, and avoiding overflow keeps the area clean (and clean areas are more likely to stay clean.) ↩
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Wellesley Square is three stops and five minutes schedule time outbound on the Framingham/Worcester line from Auburndale which is a short walk from Wally's Wicked Good. If you combine that with Bedford Farms being literally on the tracks at the Concord stop (on a different line, though) you start having the makings of an Ice Cream Rail-Trail... ↩
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Unlike my most of my restaurant mentions, this was not actually part of my ice cream exploration - just something well-known and really close to the ice cream shop as a landmark. I'm more likely to try Café Mangal or Juniper if the opportunity arises. ↩
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It's not that big a deal, Google will lead you to the right area which is brightly lit and you can look around and figure it out - but it's 2024, I can get retail satellite imagery tasked, with 48 hour turn around or less, for a few hundred dollars; there really should be a "Uber for Streetview Updates" by now... ↩
Breakers Ice Cream in Woburn (no web presence) is on Winn Street, a couple of blocks north of Woburn Common. While it has a 4 windows and a set of well-lit benches with umbrellas along a large parking lot, it's not actually that visible from the street - it's tucked in behind Mike's Place Pizzeria and has a relatively small street sign. Since it's after Labor Day, they were notably one of the few places in the Burlington area that were actually still open1 after 9pm (they were actually serving people right up to 9:30.)
They might have indoor seating, I couldn't tell if it was that or that Mike's Place extends around behind them (a disadvantage of late night ice cream runs, even the well lit places aren't all that conducive to wandering around, though google maps shows that the extensive parking continues around the back of the building too.)
First Visit
I went with "Death By Chocolate" (which had a proper dark chocolate flavor to it, as well as mixed in brownies and other chocolate.) Followed it with "Green Monster" which is a traditional mint with stuff in it; not all the way up to "grasshopper" level, but plenty of mint and plenty of chocolate.
Next visit I might try "Maine Black Bear" (raspberry) or Totally Turtle, though if their machines are up a chocolate dip cone is just as likely.
The menu lists soft serve and dip cones; they also have frappes and slush.
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While they were open, getting there 15m before closing meant that while they had dip cones (chocolate and cherry) they'd already shut down the soft serve machines for the night, so I didn't get to try those (I don't at all blame them, though, it lets them get a head start on a messy cleaning job when there aren't that many customers around anyway.) ↩
West Side Creamery (yes I'm the sort to be amused that the URL is wwww SCREAMERY :-) is in Acton center, a block away from the Acton Coffee House which used to be one of my go-to coffee shops for sipping-and-sketching (not that they've changed, just my habits have.) Right on 111 (as in, drive out rt 2 past the former-prison rotary, take the weird straight-left exit for 111 and keep going straight for another 3 minutes.) Street parking, indoor and outdoor seating. (It's also right across from the Gardner Field park, which has additional parking, picnic benches, and tree shade, though it's mostly a 2-12yo playground - to be fair, on a random Tuesday there were a lot of 6-8yo kids at West Side, apparently ice cream with gummi bear topping is the Best Thing Ever.)
I had "Coffeehouse" (more coffee-flavored-than-usual coffee ice cream), "Green Monster" (Boston-area standard green mint with chocolate cookies and chocolate fudge), and Coffee Heath Bar (what it says on the tin.)
What I missed out on, since it was a First Visit:
- ice cream "flights", 3 or 4 "tasting" scoops your choices of flavor
- ice cream sandwiches made individually with your choice of cookies
- butterscotch explosion
- peanut butter sauce
I'll definitely be back, probably late summer/early fall when I can enjoy the outdoor seating.
Bedford Farms (in Bedford next to Holi, and in Concord Depot adjacent to commuter rail station) has really dense ice cream in huge servings, and serious Frappes (no coffee drinks though.) Window service in Bedford, indoor counter service (and bathroom) in Concord. Only a dozenish flavors, with some New England standards like Green Monster and Moose Tracks. (Concord location also has a freezer with prepacked icecream and icecream cakes - they'll pack pints on the fly too, but it's good for picking something up on the way to a party that'll stay frozen.)
If you're picking something up for me: Moose Tracks Frappe (fallback: Mint Chip.) But really, just ping me, I can walk there in 15 minutes :-)
