Kay's Dairy Bar (first visit)

Kay's Dairy Bar is an ice cream shop that also does Fried Things (and burgers) - very "New England Coast Summer" vibes for a place that's an hour and a half from the nearest coastline. While I did get dinner there (after a day on Wachusett Mountain and the Echo Lake Trail) you can just get ice cream, which is really all that matters.

The place is on 2A (at a point where it's mostly a side road from 2) twenty minutes west of Leominster; it might be a good stop on the way to (or from) the Quabbin, and while it's very east of 91, it's still "out where the map is mostly green/forest" and you really have to be looking for it. Vast parking lot, a mix of sheltered and unsheltered picnic benches - definitely a great summer setting, but while there is indoor space to wait for your order, in late October you can expect to retreat to your car to eat comfortably.

They have outdoor windows for ice cream and food, on three sides of the building, as well as multiple indoor lines (the outdoor windows were closed on a late October evening, but seemed recently used.) There were menu screens inside, and also movable chalkboards that suggests that they were still recently posting them outside as well.

The ice cream menu was extensive - including Grasshopper and Peppermint Stick, three different Pumpkin flavors, and an unexplained "Goo Lagoon" (which is a key ingredient in their "Witches Brew" Halloween special sundae, with black raspberry.) They have featured sundaes, "boats"¹, and frappes, plus an unusual list of soft serve flavors including Apple Spice Twist, Maple, and Creamsicle (though, as is common this time of year, some of them were offline.)

They also have frozen yogurt, sherbet, and a few dairy-free and no-sugar-added flavors.

First Visit

I started with Maple Walnut, a cozy autumn flavor; sweet with lots of crunch.

The other half was Coffee Cookie Crunch - solidly basic coffee ice cream, recognizable but more in the range of "if you like coffee ice cream - or lattes - that's fine, but consider that you might not actually like coffee" than some of the other strong coffee ice creams I've had recently. Lots of crunch from various chocolate cookies mixed in, overall tasty, just in a more mainstream way than a Coffee Geek way.

Other Desserts

Since they're a "Fried Place"™ they have a couple of interesting non-ice-cream desserts - apple crisp, blueberry crisp, and "pumpkin fritters" with powdered sugar and maple syrup; I tried the fritters (before the ice cream) and they were hot and sweet, crispy on the outside but quite airy inside, not as dense as you might expect. They're probably fall-seasonal, but I'll definitely look for them again next time.

Next Visit

The elusive Creamsicle Soft Serve is on my list for next time, if I haven't been able to actually get it somewhere else before then; there's also a mysterious "Cookie Conundrum" boat. I'll also consider their Extreme Chocolate (possibly with Grasshopper to make a thin-mint-like sundae), Chocolate PB Cookie Dough, or maybe just Butter Pecan.