Totally Turtle
The Scoop N Scootery in Arlington is right on Mass Ave, a couple of blocks north of Alewife Brook Parkway. The web site describes them as primarily delivery1 although they do suggest that you can come in and order at the counter, despite limited seating - as you can see from the picture, that's out of date; at least at the Arlington location, it turns out you can literally barricade the door and New Englanders will still come and buy ice cream from you. There's a touch screen with their entire menu and a card swipe box2, and someone will appear at the door and call your name to hand you your ice cream (so you don't need to keep track of your order number, although it's otherwise basically the same process as the stream of pickup/delivery orders.)
Their specific Sundae menu is long and varied, but kind of difficult to choose from - I would recommend lingering over their web menu while seated somewhere warm, and possibly just outright ordering online instead of in person. If you're going for something very specific, just start with the "Custom" section at the top.
They do have frozen yogurt, and a range of toppings that includes Blueberry Muffin Crumble and Apple Pie (amidst more conventional choices like Rainbow or Chocolate Sprinkles.) They also have something they call "Sundae Cores" - a hunk of something like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Frosted Red Velvet Cake that serves as an inner layer between ice cream scoops (but is not otherwise explained anywhere.)
They also have a luciously thick whipped cream - it's not really a sundae without whipped cream, right? But even the plain whipped cream is amazing, and they also have Cinnamon and Nutella flavors.
While the indoor option is gone, there is (even now, right before Halloween) a set of picnic benches out front, with the menu QR code on them, and a couple of two-person tables with chairs. While this was fine while waiting for my order, the time of year combined with the north-east facing building (which means that all of the seating is in shadow in the late afternoon) meant that it wasn't a great spot to actually eat, even if you were already bundled up for Autumn weather.
First Visit
The sundae you see in the picture would be a large in most New England shops, but I had some forewarning - that's a "Tasty" which is the second smallest of their four sizes, the "Hungry" and "Legendary" are even bigger - plus the "Sundae Cores" make them a bit more filling than they already look.
I chose whipped cream, caramel syrup, and walnuts for toppings - that really is a generous layer of walnuts immersed in caramel, not just a sprinkling of walnut bits. Beneath that is Butter Pecan (also with sizable nuts) and the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough "core" bits; after that there's a layer of the ever-mysterious3 Totally Turtle.
Since "Totally Turtle" already has brownie chunks, combining it with a cookie dough "core" is a little redundant, I'll probably mix and match more carefully next time - or just go with a standard sundae like "Peanut Butter Mudslide", "Mintmallow", or "Strawberry Shortcake". They do have a few seasonal options like "Sweater Weather" and "Nightmare Before Christmas" which currently lean into pumpkin, caramel, and gingerbread.
I should point out that they have a lengthy and creative list of Frozen Yogurt Sundaes as well - while I'm generally dismissive (this is an ice cream site, not a things that wish they were ice cream after all) it does look like they've put some care into it, including the "'Murica" flavor - "French vanilla yogurt topped with fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries and homemade whipped cream" for a dramatic Red White and Blue (at least when served in glass for their photo gallery; not sure it translates to takeout, but it's perhaps worth finding out next 4th of July.)
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The Brighton Shop is their "first location designed specifically for the in store dining experience". ↩
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The touch screen does say "see below for other payment options" - the rest of the screen is blank. I've reviewed several cash-only shops - Sullivan Farms, Mac's Dairy Farm - but this is the first card-only place, and I sincerely hope this fails to catch on. ↩
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Totally Turtle is a popular New England flavor that generally has lots of chunks of stuff in it, and this stood up to that - but to be entirely fair, their website does explain it as "Vanilla based ice cream with brownies, cashews and caramel swirl". ↩
Cookie Monstah is a small Massachusetts chain (6 stores1 and a rentable truck) that specializes in ice cream cookie sandwiches. While they do emphasize cookies2 you can get cups of just ice cream, or ice cream with a one cookie, the standard is a scoop of ice cream squished between two (same or different) thick cookies. They have at least two doezen flavors of ice cream, with some Gluten Free and Dairy Free options; their current (fall) menu includes "Banana PB Graham", "Apple Crisp", and "Blueberry Pie" but "Eggnog" and "Camp Fire Smores" are sold out. The menu lists Rainbow Sprinkles but no Jimmies at all.
They also have floats, shakes, a "Crusher" which is Sorbet in Iced Tea, and instead of the usual weather-themed soft-serve blended drink, they have a "Quake" - a cookie blended into hard ice cream. (Perhaps it's named after the noise the machine makes when constructing it?)
This particular shop is in a strip mall with plenty of parking, but only indoor service and seating.3
First Visit
It was getting near closing time so I had mine packed up to eat (and photograph) in the car. Turns out ice cream cookies are well suited for takeout, though they make an effort to wrap and box them carefully (possibly in support of their apparently extensive delivery-app sales.)
I went with Totally Turtle in between Double Chocolate and a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip4 cookies. I couldn't find a precise description of their Totally Turtle, though Breakers, Dandi-Lyons and Mac's Dairy Farm all have flavors with that name; this version was a vanilla base with peanut butter, caramel swirl, and chocolate (cookie? brownie?) chunks. Quite a rich and varied flavor by itself, but with the cookies it ended up being A Bit Much - one of these ends up being even more filling than just a double or triple scoop "large" cup, especially after dinner.
Future Visits
Other ice cream flavors that caught my eye were "Death by Chocolate" and "Eggnog"; since I'll probably also go with a cookie next time, their "Thin Mint combo" caught my eye - mint oreo ice cream between double chocolate cookies.5
Nostalgia: Giant Cookies
The Cookie Monstah catering menu includes a 13 inch "cookie cake". While this is not itself ice cream, it brought back memories of a Very Boston special from Crossroads (a legendary Irish Pub) called the JenJen6, which was basically a giant cookie sandwich - with half a gallon of ice cream between a pair of dinner-plate sized cookies, topped with vast amounts of whipped cream and chocolate sauce. (Traditionally delivered to a table of college students by dropping it on the table with a fistful of spoons and dodging back to avoid getting caught up in the carnage.) The dish inspired many amateur attempts to duplicate it... which typically failed, because it's hard to make a cookie that large and actually bake it consistently (usual failure mode is raw in the middle but still burnt around the edges.) Perhaps the Cookie Cake is a better starting point!
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Small, but bigger than Scoop'N'Scootery which is only 4 stores; Massachusetts seems to be a good place to incubate new ice cream shop concepts... ↩
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For a strip mall, it's actually in a surprisingly natural area - there's a stream and a bit of forest, and it's across the road from a large (but inaccessible) Vine Brook Wellfield protected wetlands - but no trails or picnic areas in walking distance. ↩
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It will be wrong - given the "Thin Mint" name, the cookies should be crispy and not cakey and they should be chocolate-covered - but perhaps it will surprise me and be evocative enough anyway. ↩
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The JenJen was supposedly named after one of the cooks; the only reference I can find is in How To Get Around MIT from Fall 1998 ↩
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.)
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Supposedly, many bugs can't see yellow light - so it doesn't specifically repel them, it just doesn't attract them either (unlike blue-to-ultraviolet which does.) It has become relatively common (but not universal) for ice cream shops that are open into the evening to have yellow lights over their serving windows, at least in Massachusetts. ↩
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yes, it's written that way on the sign, and as "Campfire S'moores" on the website; I'm not mocking anyone's handwriting, Mac's seems to be using that consistently - though it's not from upstream vendor Richardson's who goes with "Campfire S'mores". ↩
There are two places called Dandi-Lyons, a couple of miles apart; today we're talking about "Dandi Lyons Ice Cream Flowers" (that's what the sign says which has amused me for years - the artwork even has a flower growing into the letters) on 28 in Reading. Plenty of parking and a dozen picnic benches, 3 ordering windows on one side and a delivery window around the corner, and traditional yellow flourescent lighting. (There's also a section of the building which might have once been the flower shop but seems clean but closed.) Still open until 9pm mid-September.
First Visit
Dandi-Lyons menu is mostly classics, though it does have some highlights (and an explainer list by one of the menus); "Crunch-a-saurus" - blue Vanilla with chocolate-covered rice krispies - is one of the more unusual sounding items. I went with Chocolate Overload and Totally Turtle.
Chocolate Overload was a rich dark chocolate "with stuff in it", including brownies. The ice cream itself had a legitimately dark-chocolate flavor to it and was quite creamy. It also has an entirely normal color, when not under yellow flourescent lighting; in future visits I will have to see if my phone can be convinced to do manual color balance, the automatics are doing it no favors here.
The "Totally Turtle" photographs much more appealingly under my car's white LED interior lighting - more importantly, it has a really nice butterscotch swirl as well as crunchy pecan and other mixins. The butterscotch is also available on their ice cream sundaes - they do soft-serve sundaes, and I'm not sure if that's unusual or if I've just missed it before, but it's an interesting novelty.
They also have frappes, "flurrie", slush, and "hard yogurt." They also specifically have Chocolate and Rainbow jimmies (I haven't been tracking carefully enough to measure where the Jimmies vs. Sprinkles battle lines are drawn, perhaps next year) and Crunch Coat, as well as three different flavors of dip cone - so for a future visit I will probably either try a dip cone or the crunch coat on something. For hard ice cream, I'll probably go back for Totally Turtle, though Heath Bar Crunch and Crunch-a-saurus also look interesting.