Johnson's Restaurant and Dairy Bar

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.