Massachusetts Ice Cream
A new ice cream season is upon us in Massachusetts. Let's talk about the last 50 years of Greater Boston ice cream history. I've heard of a study that says people in New England eat the most ice cream in the world.
When I was a kid, it was Brigham's Ice Cream and Friendly's. You'd see Brigham’s in shopping plazas and strip malls, but you'd see Friendly's being built as standalone locations on their own footprint. Their business models were slightly different, but those were the places to go in the 1970s and 1980s. I still have faint memories of flared metallic cups at Brigham's and Fribbles in huge plastic cups at Friendly's; those were their signatures. As I'd learn, the ice cream was good but far from great.
We'd also go to Kelly's Kreme on Revere Beach. My uncle's father founded and owned Kelly's Roast Beef and Kelly's Kreme. My sister and some of my female cousins worked at Kelly's Kreme during those 1980s summers; at the time, men worked at Kelly's Roast Beef, and only women worked at Kelly's Kreme.
When we went to another of my uncles' places in Middleton during the 1970s and 1980s, we'd sometimes go to Richardson's Ice Cream, which was a treat. I moved up to my sister's place in 2015-2016 while our house was being built; there were construction delays. The ice cream at Richardson's, in my opinion, has been solidified and may be the best in the state.
I should mention Howard Johnson’s. Its founder, Howard Deering Johnson, lived in Milton, but by the 1970s and 1980s, HoJo's was on its way out. The company was more interested in building motor lodges across the United States.
In the 1980s, we sometimes visited my stepmother's parents’ home in Carlisle. We'd always go to Bates Farm, which had a bunch of cows and GREAT ice cream. It's been gobbled up by Kimball Farm, which is still a good ice cream company.
When we moved to Hanover, Ritter's Ice Cream was a bustling place, but it didn't feel authentic because I didn't see any cows. I might've gone to Bubbling Brook in Westwood once, which reminds me of Ritter's Ice Cream—those old-timey windows in white, low-slung buildings. Those types of places seemed to dot New England's burgeoning suburbs back then.
When we moved to Cohasset, I'd made friends who had gotten jobs at JC's Dairy, which was always busy, but I stuck my nose up at those types of places because I'd learned that soft-serve is shit.
By the way, we NEVER went to Dairy Queen. There was a Dairy Queen in East Boston during the 1970s, but it didn't last long because soft-serve is shit. In Massachusetts, DQ is a big no-no.
When I worked on Newbury Street, I'd sometimes go either Ben & Jerry's or Emack & Bolio’s, both good purveyors. I loved Ben & Jerry’s. I've read a couple of books by the founder and former CEO, and I've visited the plant in Vermont, but the owners have sold the company and gone insane, so my love has dwindled.
I moved to Sharon in the early 90s. My dad liked to go to Crescent Ridge Dairy. The lines were always long, but the prices were cheap.
I was working in Edgartown when Bill Clinton ate some ice cream at Mad Martha's Ice Cream shortly after his affair with Monica Lewinsky was made public.
My mom introduced me to Hodgie's Ice Cream when she lived in Amesbury, but I wasn't impressed because soft-serve is shit.
I live in Stoughton now.
I still go to Crescent Ridge Dairy, but it's changed. The prices have soared. I don't blame the ownership because there has obviously been an issue related to supply and demand for decades.
There's been way too much demand at Crescent Ridge Dairy, which has only grown as local ice cream shops have continued to close. I realize that people don't go to Crescent Ridge Dairy for the ice cream, which is good; they go for the nostalgia. They like to see the cows and the goats.
Interestingly, the ice cream at Crescent Ridge Dairy isn't produced there. The cows in the pasture are not the cows used to produce the milk that makes the ice cream. They're stunt cows.
At this point, I'm ranting, but I'm not mad at the people of Crescent Ridge Dairy. If I had an ice cream mine, I'd milk it, pun intended, for everything it's worth. For my part, I won't be going there as often because $5.25 plus tax for a tiny tot-sized dish and $10.25 plus tax for 1.5 quarts of prepackaged ice cream is bonkers.
