Matrix Brownie

Art's Creamery is on Trapelo Road in the middle of Belmont - a couple of blocks east of Belmont Wheelworks. It's in a short block of retail storefronts, with lots of street parking, especially in the evening - and since it's open until 10pm (11pm on weekends), there's very little contention for it. This being Massachusetts, there's actually another (small) ice cream shop a couple of doors down in the same block¹.

No outdoor seating or service, and no indoor seating either; just a long line² of serving/display tubs of ice cream and gelato, then another counter with a grid of toppings (which might have been self-service in a bygone time.) No frozen yogurt or other items in the "almost but not entirely unlike ice cream" category, other than 3 Vegan flavors including "Vegan Almond Chai". They do have a long toppings list including, correctly³, Chocolate Jimmies and Rainbow Sprinkles. They also have a 3-scoop milk shake, and any-flavor cold-brew Affogato.

They do have a variety of "mystery flavors", like "Chiller Bee" and "Matrix Brownie", but not only are the staff enthusiastic about explaining them, the online menu has more detailed ingredient lists⁴ than most shops do.

First Visit

Since they had such a broad Gelato selection (and encouraged sampling), I tasted the "Belgian Chocolate Gelato" - pleasantly strong chocolate flavor, but I personally find the texture of Gelato a little off - if you already know you like gelato, though, go for it.

For the ice cream itself, I started with Maple Walnut - which has candied walnuts, making the texture a bit more like Butter Crunch, as well as having a really distinctively maple flavor in the ice cream itself. (Chocolate Jimmies on top.)

I followed that with "Matrix Brownie" - a serious dark chocolate base with brownies, chocolate swirl and some other chocolate crunch to it. Not sure about the theme behind the name, but it is competitive with several of the Extreme Chocolate flavors I've tried - a good choice for a chocolate fan.

Future Visits

Next time around I'll definitely try "Chiller Bee" (assuming it is actually a honey-based flavor) and maybe the "Peanut Butter Banana Fluff". This is also the second place I've seen that lists Butterfinger crumble as a topping, which might be a good addition to add texture to basic Chocolate. It would also be interesting to see if their Cinnamon flavor is more "autumn seasonal" or "butter crunch but with red-hots instead", but fortunately they encourage sampling.