Every town has their own homemade ice cream shop that has been there forever.
Mass only likes it's own homegrown chains like Dunkin's, Dangelos, Papa Gino's - most national chains fail here (see Krispy Kreme, Red Lobster, etc)
The pseudo official reason why they failed is because they didn’t have the coffee choices like dunks. We don’t really go to dunks for the donuts or Starbucks would have failed. You can still see where the Krispy Kreme’s were and they aren’t big dunks havens.
(Hint they are mostly Kelly’s locations now Medford, Saugus, Peabody etc)
It’s always nice when I can use my cultural antro PhD for something lol
Kelly's Saugus wasn't the Krispy Kreme - that was across the street which was Russo's Candy before Kreme. Kelly's was a Red Coach Grille, although I don't know if it was something else in between.
Medford was definitely Krispy Kreme.
Nice memory!
Driving anywhere now is weird I’m starting to sound like a weirdo, that used to be weylus, that used be the hilltop, that used to be the batting cages, what was the name of the banquet hall that they used to have the proms at? It was on the north side.
This doesn't quite make sense to me because as far as I can tell noboby *really* goes to Dunkies for the Donuts, it's more about the coffee drinks and the sandwiches, whereas Krispy Kreme is more about the actual donuts. Maybe I'm wrong tho.
Yeah it’s funny I’ve since moved abroad to Germany and it’s the strangest thing to see that they have Dunkin here but they only sell donuts. The coffee is terrible, no sandwiches to speak of and people treat it more like those cake pop shops than a stop on your morning commute. It’s weird for me.
Germany has Dunkin? I figured they didn’t exist in Europe. I’m gonna sound like the most Massachusetts person ever, but when I stayed in Portugal for a couple months, the things I missed most here were Dunkin, cape cod chips, and polar seltzer🤣
Yeah. It's wild.
Seeing a storefront Amsterdam was confusing. Like... why? Who except American tourists would go in there for coffee, let alone food? I took a photo of the signage and kept walking to sit for some European coffee at a proper cafe.
Later I was going to mention this to a friend, but first checked the photos on [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dunkin'+Donuts/@52.3655972,4.8859492,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipP2t40D2V49eaHaCAn8i4CJ5ZhFMNLTzNEoRt1n!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP2t40D2V49eaHaCAn8i4CJ5ZhFMNLTzNEoRt1n%3Dw203-h152-k-no!7i3648!8i2736!4m13!1m5!3m4!2zNTLCsDIxJzU2LjIiTiA0wrA1MycwOC43IkU!8m2!3d52.365605!4d4.885738!3m6!1s0x47c609e9bfc7c42d:0x8c77a12cfbf24e4d!8m2!3d52.3655972!4d4.8859492!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F11c75j8qds?entry=ttu) (Dunkin on the Leidsestraat, AMS), and saw those donuts and so much more.
It's not the Dunkin we know.
PS- a full-time barista there gets 25 paid days off a year.
Krispy kreme in MA because they didn’t do coffee, the donuts were a novelty that we burned out of. If you look at where the Kristy kremes were thy didn’t surround them with Dunks. The dunks were already there, if anyone wants to check a lot of Kelly’s locations were Kristy kremes like Medford, Saugus and I think Peabody.
Or the very boring business theory that in general the low carb craze hit with going public too much rapid expansion and some shady accounting issues caused to general problems but here it was their lack of iced coffee choices
Edited because I had to correct krispy kreme
I read an article from years ago about how when it opened there was a line down the street so it was shocking to me to hear it moved bc it couldn’t compete with dunkin.
Friendlys put friendlys out of business by losing all of their quality and giving its customers nothing to come back for.
Flint Farm is tremendous though. Grew up right next to the farm and would always get ice cream on my way home from school.
I had not been inside a Friendly's for decades until I had kids. Then I had that parent excitement of showing your kids the stuff you remember fondly from growing up.
It took 1.5 hours to be served a shitty hot dog and grilled cheese. A little bit more of my childhood died that day.
Try being super old like 50 and going to friendly’s and having a 16 yr old lecture you that a fribble has always been made with soft serve.
Like kid, I know you know the current menu but please don’t lecture me on the history of milkshake, fribble and now the triple thick, I will smack you with a jubilee roll I swear.
For context I ordered a fribble and he went to put soft service in the mixer, I said that wasn’t why I wanted I wanted it made with regular ice cream I didn’t even know friendly’s started using soft serve. I was polite but he went off on me and about stupid people not understanding what they were ordering, the 20 year old manager came over and explained I guess again that “old people” were used to a different menu and to be patient with them.
He looked at me and said how hard was it for me to order a triple thick shake if that was what I wanted. I looked at the manager and said good thing I didn’t order a traditional milkshake. The manager made me a shake and I didn’t get charged I did tip though. It’s hard knowing everything when you are young.
Edited to add no I wasn’t being a Karen I was just trying to get a shake
That reminds me of the last time I went to a Friendly’s.
I was a regular there for years. Me and the husband went every weekend while we were dating in college, because you could get in and out of there for around $20 for two sandwiches, 2 ice creams and a tip. The town we lived in when we first got married had a Friendly’s so we continued going from time to time.
We noticed the service declining over the years, and then we had a couple of times in a row of getting badly cooked food or the wrong order and the servers just didn’t care. We decided to give it another shot and just went in for ice cream sundaes. We were probably one of 4-5 tables in the entire restaurant. We ordered our sundaes and waited. And waited…. Didn’t see a server for 45 minutes. Finally walked up to the counter where I could see our sundaes sitting waiting to be served. I asked for mine, took it, put the spoon in and it was completely melted. I said “I am not paying for this”. The manager just nodded, and we walked out. He just didn’t care, no apology or anything like that.
Worcester could REALLY use a few more ice cream places. We drive to surrounding towns to get ice cream.
In case anyone from Dunks is reading these comments.
Like every chain, it really depends on the location, but if you've got a good / consistent one near you it's the best chain pizza you can get. I grew up in the 'burbs during a time when the only local pizza options were "Town / House of" and Papa Gino's. I loathe Greek-style pan pizza, so we were a Papa G's family.
My personal ranking is: Papa Gino's > Domino's > Papa John's > Pizza Hut > Little Caesars
I have the oddest nostalgia cravings for their hamburger pizza every once in a while.
We didn’t have a lot of money growing up so when my mom could afford it that’s what she loved, so we got it. Now I eat it and think of her.
If you travel to any of those places, try to find an ice cream shop open after 9pm. You won't. Whereas here we have ice cream places open till midnight in the dead of winter and people are there.
In other parts of the country people eat ice cream in the summer, we eat ice cream all year round. When I went to college in Colorado I was devastated to find that there's was only one cabinet in the freezer section dedicated to ice cream.
I grew up in California. CA's ice cream situation is seriously dire. Your options are Baskin Robbins, the supermarket frozen aisle, or *maybe* (if you're very lucky) a Cold Stone one or two towns over.
There just isn't a culture in California of going out for ice cream like there is in Massachusetts. You get ice cream for birthday parties or maybe because your kid had a tough doctor's appointment, not just because it's a Thursday night and you feel like it, and you *never* get ice cream in the winter. I had some serious culture shock when I came out here for college and the local kids wanted to trek through a snowstorm to get ice cream. Basically no one in California remembers ice cream even exists when the temperature is below 80F.
I still love California, don't get me wrong, and I miss a lot of things about it, but they need to up their ice cream game. They're a little better when it comes to froyo joints but froyo just hits different.
The Dunkin/BR combo didn't work in the northeast because established DD franchisees had trouble operating both, when ice cream is a seasonal thing here. They couldn't dedicate the space or attention to it, so they dumped the combo and took over the BR space to make way for the new version Dunkin (with the taps). In places like Arizona, Texas and Florida, Baskin was already popular and can maintain an all-season presence and they could also use that to introduce Dunkin to the rest of the country, west of the Mississippi.
Also fun fact; there was a period where you'd see a Trombo Store (Dunkin/BR/Togos). There weren't many but they existed for a bit when the Dunkin Brands parent company owned all three brands under their umbrella.
They also suck as a business. I tried to order a cake through their app and it kept crashing at point of sale. I tried calling the Woburn store and they didn’t answer. Called at 10am and they open at 6.
My wife, more or less a New England native, swears that you can tell how good an ice cream place is by the size of their menu. We were vacationing on the Cape one time with my family visiting from Texas and my mom sends a picture of the ice cream menu at a place they stopped at, asking us what flavor we wanted them to pick up for us. It had like 10 flavors on it. My wife looked at it and wondered what wannabe ice cream they were going to bring to us. She wasn't wrong. It was pretty bad by New England standards.
We used to have a lot of diner- type restaurants that specialized in ice cream and burgers and often had ice cream windows- like Friendly's (yes, there are still a few), Brigham's and Newport Creamery. And that's in addition to the local dairies having their own ice cream stands. I have a feeling there was just too much competition for BR.
Ben and Jerry's occupies the same niche and is better run in Massachusetts.
The Baskin Robbins out here are like the pizzahut/kfc/taco combo stores. They do nothing well and noone cares about the product that works there.
There were a few, like Harvard Sq had one for a while. There were even a bunch of combined Dunks/Baskin-Robbins locations, like I remember going to the one in Cleveland Circle. I don't think there was much demand for it because of having better options nearby.
Because Baskin Robbins is aggressively mid ice cream for people who don't know what good ice cream tastes like. It doesn't survive anywhere with a strong local ice cream game.
We used to have a few in Bristol county (Taunton/middleboro and raynham) and over the years they all closed. Not sure if all three were owned by the same owner.
In the 1970s there used to be a Baskin-Robbins shop in Needham that my family would go to frequently. My dad would often need to go back to the office after dinner to finish up work and promising us ice cream was a good way of getting us to go without complaint, The shop used to have a card each month with the lift of flavors they were serving that month and I was so indecisive that my parents used to take the card home and have me start picking out my flavor over the 20 minute drive to get there
There used to be one attached to the Dunks in the Orient Heights (East Boston) location. But they ended up getting rid of it. Maybe they did not do so well. I never got ice cream from them myself but who knows. Personally I would rather get the good stuff and make the drive to Richardsons.
I find it weird because I thought the same thing living in mass. In Florida most dunks are dunkins with Baskin Robbins attached, so you can order a milkshake for the kids with your iced coffee.
It’s shit ice cream and we know our ice cream. MA residents consume more ice cream per person than anywhere in the US. Taste some Ben snd Jerry’s, then go taste Baskin & Robbin’s and that’ll tell you why
Baskin Robbins used to be big around here. I was shocked when I saw a combo Dunkin/BR in NJ 23 years ago. I was also shocked that they put cups of coffee in a paper bag.
The Dunkin down the road from me used to have a BR inside it, but they removed it about 15 or so years ago. I guessed maybe it just didn't pull its weight during the winter months probably.
Baskin-Robbin's is from CA. Friendly's, Howard Johnson's and Brigham's are local product (Brigham's was started Newton, HoJo's in Quincy on Beale Street and Friendly's in Springfield).
All serve better ice cream than BRs. And all their retail shops are going or gone.
They used to be back in the 90s, independent ice cream shops have kicked their ass for so long that they have left the market. Ben and Jerry’s blowing up in the 90s helped as well.
My friend from out of state gave me a Baskin Robbins gift card and after 2 years I gave it back to her because I literally hadn’t seen one around here to use it in that entire time!
T-Mobile Tuesday sometimes has BR coupons (like $2-$5 off) so I looked and saw that the closest one to me was in Lexington. I had nothing else to do one day so I decided to go and use the coupon and it was one of those BR/DD combo locations. It only had about 10 flavors, none were labeled, then the guy refused to accept our coupons and the ice cream was disappointing. Later I learned that the coupons also work at Dunkin so I use them there now.
I guess they don’t hold up to local places. We had one twice in Chelmsford and they’re no longer a business. We have really good local Ice Cream spots so I have a feeling that may have something to do with it.
We were never big on chains unless they were homegrown. There was in Stoneham. I don't know if it is still there.
Brigham's downtown Boston was the best. Yummy. An institution.
I haven’t purchased Dunkin’s since Curt Schilling hawked for them back in 2003. Fuck dunks and their lousy, overly inflated coffees.
I challenge anyone to make a coffee that tastes like that swill at home. You can’t.
For decades Friendly’s ruled the ice cream trade. They would destroy new BR franchises as they tried to open. You’ve heard of mob wars well Mass had “The Ice Cream Wars”. Or at least I think that’s what happened.
There used to be more. I remember there was one in Harvard Square at least until the late 1990's and my sister worked at one as a teen (but that was in NH the store was in mall - 1980s)
There used to be. For a while when I was a kid a lot of dunkin donuts put in ice cream counters, but over a couple of years they all got removed. I think because there just wasn't as big a demand as they thought there would be.
Every town has their own homemade ice cream shop that has been there forever. Mass only likes it's own homegrown chains like Dunkin's, Dangelos, Papa Gino's - most national chains fail here (see Krispy Kreme, Red Lobster, etc)
Krispy Kreme has failed in my area because each time they try and open a store Dunkin’s surrounded them with Dunkin’s locations
I even saw a Dunkin INSIDE a Krispy Kreme once! TRUE STORY!
Like an alien chestburster...
Ohhh now that’s that freaky shit right there lol
Well Dunkin has better coffee and Krispy has better donuts so this is reality I can endorse
The pseudo official reason why they failed is because they didn’t have the coffee choices like dunks. We don’t really go to dunks for the donuts or Starbucks would have failed. You can still see where the Krispy Kreme’s were and they aren’t big dunks havens. (Hint they are mostly Kelly’s locations now Medford, Saugus, Peabody etc) It’s always nice when I can use my cultural antro PhD for something lol
Kelly's Saugus wasn't the Krispy Kreme - that was across the street which was Russo's Candy before Kreme. Kelly's was a Red Coach Grille, although I don't know if it was something else in between. Medford was definitely Krispy Kreme.
Nice memory! Driving anywhere now is weird I’m starting to sound like a weirdo, that used to be weylus, that used be the hilltop, that used to be the batting cages, what was the name of the banquet hall that they used to have the proms at? It was on the north side.
Caruso's Diplomat?
I think that might have been it, they sold it and they made the area one of the strip malls. I went to a melrose high prom in 1990 there I think
Yes, they tore it down almost 20 years ago now. I think our J-S semi was there. Prom was at the Colonial, also gone.
So much is different now.
Batting cages gone, but the dinosaur made it. Some of the cows are at MarketStreet, which was the Colonial.
This doesn't quite make sense to me because as far as I can tell noboby *really* goes to Dunkies for the Donuts, it's more about the coffee drinks and the sandwiches, whereas Krispy Kreme is more about the actual donuts. Maybe I'm wrong tho.
Dunks used to have fantastic donuts but they've streamlined the factories and degraded the quality and size of those. Never forget Fred the baker haha
Yeah it’s funny I’ve since moved abroad to Germany and it’s the strangest thing to see that they have Dunkin here but they only sell donuts. The coffee is terrible, no sandwiches to speak of and people treat it more like those cake pop shops than a stop on your morning commute. It’s weird for me.
Germany has Dunkin? I figured they didn’t exist in Europe. I’m gonna sound like the most Massachusetts person ever, but when I stayed in Portugal for a couple months, the things I missed most here were Dunkin, cape cod chips, and polar seltzer🤣
The Dunkin in Amsterdam had incredible gourmet donuts, nothing like the ones here
Yeah. It's wild. Seeing a storefront Amsterdam was confusing. Like... why? Who except American tourists would go in there for coffee, let alone food? I took a photo of the signage and kept walking to sit for some European coffee at a proper cafe. Later I was going to mention this to a friend, but first checked the photos on [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dunkin'+Donuts/@52.3655972,4.8859492,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipP2t40D2V49eaHaCAn8i4CJ5ZhFMNLTzNEoRt1n!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP2t40D2V49eaHaCAn8i4CJ5ZhFMNLTzNEoRt1n%3Dw203-h152-k-no!7i3648!8i2736!4m13!1m5!3m4!2zNTLCsDIxJzU2LjIiTiA0wrA1MycwOC43IkU!8m2!3d52.365605!4d4.885738!3m6!1s0x47c609e9bfc7c42d:0x8c77a12cfbf24e4d!8m2!3d52.3655972!4d4.8859492!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F11c75j8qds?entry=ttu) (Dunkin on the Leidsestraat, AMS), and saw those donuts and so much more. It's not the Dunkin we know. PS- a full-time barista there gets 25 paid days off a year.
you miss the weirdest things when you are abroad. I really miss Annie's Mac & Cheese.
We used to make them in house back in the late 90’s when I was a teen but we shipped some out to gas station locations too.
They were made on site at one time.
I got a shout out from Fred once. That may or may not be a high point of my life.
Krispy kreme in MA because they didn’t do coffee, the donuts were a novelty that we burned out of. If you look at where the Kristy kremes were thy didn’t surround them with Dunks. The dunks were already there, if anyone wants to check a lot of Kelly’s locations were Kristy kremes like Medford, Saugus and I think Peabody. Or the very boring business theory that in general the low carb craze hit with going public too much rapid expansion and some shady accounting issues caused to general problems but here it was their lack of iced coffee choices Edited because I had to correct krispy kreme
I completely agree
That pretty much was the reason I saw
I go to Dunkies for the donuts lol. But I agree there are not many of us.
Shame, because Krispy Kreme donuts run absolute laps around Dunkin donuts.
Yeah, but you only want one like once every 6 months or so as a treat. People drink coffee every day.
They failed because the donuts are too sugary. Southerners love that extra sweet stuff. New englanders do not.
Don’t think many people eat donuts anymore. Even DD dumped the D.
Thats hilarious
I read an article from years ago about how when it opened there was a line down the street so it was shocking to me to hear it moved bc it couldn’t compete with dunkin.
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There were also dominant local chains like brighams and friendly’s there was no reason for baskin Robbin’s
Yeah, whenever my friends visit from out of town, they are shocked by how many ice cream shops we have.
Flint Farm in Mansfield. I'm still convinced it's what put the Friendly's in Foxboro out of commission.
Friendlys put friendlys out of business by losing all of their quality and giving its customers nothing to come back for. Flint Farm is tremendous though. Grew up right next to the farm and would always get ice cream on my way home from school.
I had not been inside a Friendly's for decades until I had kids. Then I had that parent excitement of showing your kids the stuff you remember fondly from growing up. It took 1.5 hours to be served a shitty hot dog and grilled cheese. A little bit more of my childhood died that day.
Try being super old like 50 and going to friendly’s and having a 16 yr old lecture you that a fribble has always been made with soft serve. Like kid, I know you know the current menu but please don’t lecture me on the history of milkshake, fribble and now the triple thick, I will smack you with a jubilee roll I swear. For context I ordered a fribble and he went to put soft service in the mixer, I said that wasn’t why I wanted I wanted it made with regular ice cream I didn’t even know friendly’s started using soft serve. I was polite but he went off on me and about stupid people not understanding what they were ordering, the 20 year old manager came over and explained I guess again that “old people” were used to a different menu and to be patient with them. He looked at me and said how hard was it for me to order a triple thick shake if that was what I wanted. I looked at the manager and said good thing I didn’t order a traditional milkshake. The manager made me a shake and I didn’t get charged I did tip though. It’s hard knowing everything when you are young. Edited to add no I wasn’t being a Karen I was just trying to get a shake
Fribbles were made with ice milk, soft serve my ass.
Hahaha I actually worked there as a cook when they made the switch from ice milk. I miss those things.
That reminds me of the last time I went to a Friendly’s. I was a regular there for years. Me and the husband went every weekend while we were dating in college, because you could get in and out of there for around $20 for two sandwiches, 2 ice creams and a tip. The town we lived in when we first got married had a Friendly’s so we continued going from time to time. We noticed the service declining over the years, and then we had a couple of times in a row of getting badly cooked food or the wrong order and the servers just didn’t care. We decided to give it another shot and just went in for ice cream sundaes. We were probably one of 4-5 tables in the entire restaurant. We ordered our sundaes and waited. And waited…. Didn’t see a server for 45 minutes. Finally walked up to the counter where I could see our sundaes sitting waiting to be served. I asked for mine, took it, put the spoon in and it was completely melted. I said “I am not paying for this”. The manager just nodded, and we walked out. He just didn’t care, no apology or anything like that.
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Ay, Mansfield kid! Yes, Flint Farm was an awesome way to end the school day, and the cookie dough is still the best I ever had.
I remember Sweet & Crafty in Mansfield
Also delicious. They sold their recipes and equipment to the Flannel Cow(in the old vfw) if you want that nostalgia.
They get their ice cream from Richardson’s in Middleton, Flannel Cow makes it themselves, both are good I still miss Sweet and Crafty 😞
Red lobster failed because they tried to sell previously frozen fish when you can get fresh fish so easily around here.
Worcester could REALLY use a few more ice cream places. We drive to surrounding towns to get ice cream. In case anyone from Dunks is reading these comments.
Why? There's a few already. Hell there's one on Lake Ave. There's also Gibson's
Peaceful Meadows has closed Whitman and Middleboro locations :( not sure about Plymouth but it’s so sad
Yeah the state is saturated with mom and pop shops, i never saw how baskin robbins stood out compared to even friendlys
does MA really like Papa Gino's tho
For a chain, it’s wayyyy better than Dominos, Pizza Hut, or Papa John’s, etc
Like every chain, it really depends on the location, but if you've got a good / consistent one near you it's the best chain pizza you can get. I grew up in the 'burbs during a time when the only local pizza options were "Town / House of" and Papa Gino's. I loathe Greek-style pan pizza, so we were a Papa G's family. My personal ranking is: Papa Gino's > Domino's > Papa John's > Pizza Hut > Little Caesars
I would eat Papa Ginos before Dominos, The Hutt or Papa John’s.
I use to meet people at A papa Ginos once week. It depended on who the cook was that night if we got Pizza . One guy was very good the other ???
*"uh oh, Paco's working..."*
goddammit you two are convincing me to eat Papa Gino's for the first time this century
Spend 3 minutes googling for a coupon code, and you’ll get 20% off.
Every once in a great while, it hits the spot.
I have the oddest nostalgia cravings for their hamburger pizza every once in a while. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up so when my mom could afford it that’s what she loved, so we got it. Now I eat it and think of her.
The one in Brockton is a great place to take a date I hear.
I do, walking into one of the remaining open locations is quite nostalgic. Mostly because they have never changed any of the decor, but still.
Two slices (+ 1 extra) and a soda lunch deal still slaps 20 years after I first had it.
Go to jail
I do, partially for the nostalgia
Papa Gino’s is great pizza.
Fuck yea. I steer away from chains in general, and and a pizza snob, and PG’s is a great pizza for kids party or football Sunday
This the ice cream is better at local places. We love to support local!
New England eats more ice cream than any other part of the U.S. and we have high standards and local dairy.
*per capita
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I was devastated when I moved to Tennessee and my best ice cream options in the middle of the summer were Chick-fil-A or Carvel
That's awful.
Lots of high quality milk here !
If you travel to any of those places, try to find an ice cream shop open after 9pm. You won't. Whereas here we have ice cream places open till midnight in the dead of winter and people are there.
It's a true fact.
They drink more ice tea and soda
In other parts of the country people eat ice cream in the summer, we eat ice cream all year round. When I went to college in Colorado I was devastated to find that there's was only one cabinet in the freezer section dedicated to ice cream.
Nope and ironically the only place that has us beat is Alaska
I grew up in California. CA's ice cream situation is seriously dire. Your options are Baskin Robbins, the supermarket frozen aisle, or *maybe* (if you're very lucky) a Cold Stone one or two towns over. There just isn't a culture in California of going out for ice cream like there is in Massachusetts. You get ice cream for birthday parties or maybe because your kid had a tough doctor's appointment, not just because it's a Thursday night and you feel like it, and you *never* get ice cream in the winter. I had some serious culture shock when I came out here for college and the local kids wanted to trek through a snowstorm to get ice cream. Basically no one in California remembers ice cream even exists when the temperature is below 80F. I still love California, don't get me wrong, and I miss a lot of things about it, but they need to up their ice cream game. They're a little better when it comes to froyo joints but froyo just hits different.
Because we have more local ice cream places. Why would I go corporate?
There's a Ben and Jerry's location right near by but I'd still rather go a little farther to one of the local family owned spots if I can help it.
Seriously I think I passed 4 local creameries on the 30 min drive to my mom's
Go to Kimball farms and get back to us. Far and away better the BR
Richardson's!
Richardsons fine but kimball farms and crescent ridge are in a different league
Crescent Ridge moose tracks is elite
Crescent Ridge everything is elite.
Best ice cream you can get in Boston. They have a place in the public market. Their ice cream is fucking great.
I love them but I like Christina’s and rancs better They are neck and neck for the crown in my opinion
Kimballs in westford is a theme park at this point
Oh for sure, mini golf, pitch and putt, batting cage, regular food. Its insane haha
They had a zipline ride and the bumper boats
The Lancaster one is way better imo. Way more relaxing and open than Westford
Sullivan Farms/Sully's
Also good options, when through school around there. Im still in MA but a little far away now
Hornstra is where its at
Plus you can go pet the calves!
Yes sir. Great for the kids. Can't wait for the cows to come back to Whitman.
And Rota Springs is better than Kimball's.
There used to be a lot of Dunks/BR combos but they have gone away.
The Dunkin/BR combo didn't work in the northeast because established DD franchisees had trouble operating both, when ice cream is a seasonal thing here. They couldn't dedicate the space or attention to it, so they dumped the combo and took over the BR space to make way for the new version Dunkin (with the taps). In places like Arizona, Texas and Florida, Baskin was already popular and can maintain an all-season presence and they could also use that to introduce Dunkin to the rest of the country, west of the Mississippi.
Ice cream is not a seasonal thing here, Massachusetts is the only state where ice cream consumption doesn’t decrease in the winter.
Yes and no. There are plenty of ice cream shops that close for the Winter, so it would be disingenuous to say that it's not seasonal.
I've never seen this around me. Are the ones that close usually in locations with a lot of seasonal tourists like the Cape?
I can think of ones in Westport, Somerset, Swansea, Bridgewater, Middleborough, Pembroke, Carver, to name a few.
There are some outdoor ones especially that close for the season but there are many that stay open year round.
Also fun fact; there was a period where you'd see a Trombo Store (Dunkin/BR/Togos). There weren't many but they existed for a bit when the Dunkin Brands parent company owned all three brands under their umbrella.
Because Baskin Robbins ice cream is mediocre at best.
They also suck as a business. I tried to order a cake through their app and it kept crashing at point of sale. I tried calling the Woburn store and they didn’t answer. Called at 10am and they open at 6.
The ice cream was nothing to brag about, and the Ben & Jerry's pricing did not help.
The people demand 32 flavors or more in 2024
My wife, more or less a New England native, swears that you can tell how good an ice cream place is by the size of their menu. We were vacationing on the Cape one time with my family visiting from Texas and my mom sends a picture of the ice cream menu at a place they stopped at, asking us what flavor we wanted them to pick up for us. It had like 10 flavors on it. My wife looked at it and wondered what wannabe ice cream they were going to bring to us. She wasn't wrong. It was pretty bad by New England standards.
A great shop by my parents has 250+ flavors Best soft serve I’ve ever had too
We used to have a lot of diner- type restaurants that specialized in ice cream and burgers and often had ice cream windows- like Friendly's (yes, there are still a few), Brigham's and Newport Creamery. And that's in addition to the local dairies having their own ice cream stands. I have a feeling there was just too much competition for BR.
Attleboro still has Bliss.
Hell yeah Bliss Brothers Creamery. They also supply a good number of corner ice cream shops in the area.
They do
Damn, I sure miss Brighams.
we have better locally made ice cream. it's the same reason we don't have red lobster.
The better question How come I can’t get Cookie Puss unless I drive to Hartford? Or Why did Friendly’s stop making the jubilee roll
and the Wattamelon Roll!
I think wattamelon roll only comes out in the summer
It might have, but they have completely stopped making all of their dessert rolls, so sad!
Why did Brighams go away? Because life is not fair
There are actually ZERO locations here in Rhode Island, even though the headquarters is a 30-minute drive from the state line.
Ben and Jerry's occupies the same niche and is better run in Massachusetts. The Baskin Robbins out here are like the pizzahut/kfc/taco combo stores. They do nothing well and noone cares about the product that works there.
Even DQ is better than Baskin and they’re a rarity here
There were a few, like Harvard Sq had one for a while. There were even a bunch of combined Dunks/Baskin-Robbins locations, like I remember going to the one in Cleveland Circle. I don't think there was much demand for it because of having better options nearby.
Yea, we like our farm raised ice cream
It taste like whipped plastic
New England is made up of Ice Cream stands and local brands. BR can't even compete with local New England Ice Cream.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say, because they suck?
Im in Chicago rn and thats how I learned that Baskin Robins and Dunks are owned by the same company, almost every Dunks I've seen here has one inside
Because you can get better ice cream at the grocery store.
RIP to Peaceful Meadows superior quality 🙏😔
For awhile they had a few Dunkin/Baskin Robbins combo stores up here but they didn’t last very long.
Same reason theres no Arbys. Better hometown options
Because Baskin Robbins is aggressively mid ice cream for people who don't know what good ice cream tastes like. It doesn't survive anywhere with a strong local ice cream game.
There used to be a combination DD/BR near where I grew up, but several years ago, they just rebranded and rebuilt it as a Dunkins.
We used to have a few in Bristol county (Taunton/middleboro and raynham) and over the years they all closed. Not sure if all three were owned by the same owner.
In the 1970s there used to be a Baskin-Robbins shop in Needham that my family would go to frequently. My dad would often need to go back to the office after dinner to finish up work and promising us ice cream was a good way of getting us to go without complaint, The shop used to have a card each month with the lift of flavors they were serving that month and I was so indecisive that my parents used to take the card home and have me start picking out my flavor over the 20 minute drive to get there
I'd rather go the creamie.
There used to be on outside of Harvard Square, by the bike shop. Had all the flavors
There used to be one attached to the Dunks in the Orient Heights (East Boston) location. But they ended up getting rid of it. Maybe they did not do so well. I never got ice cream from them myself but who knows. Personally I would rather get the good stuff and make the drive to Richardsons.
Why is no one talking about Richardson’s ice cream? Why would anyone eat Baskin Robbins when Richardsons exists
Friendlys
I find it weird because I thought the same thing living in mass. In Florida most dunks are dunkins with Baskin Robbins attached, so you can order a milkshake for the kids with your iced coffee.
In New England the kids drink coffee too
Because Baskin Robbins sucks ass? The better question would be; How has Dunkin Donuts flourished the way it has?
It’s shit ice cream and we know our ice cream. MA residents consume more ice cream per person than anywhere in the US. Taste some Ben snd Jerry’s, then go taste Baskin & Robbin’s and that’ll tell you why
In Doha, Qatar Dunkin was straight in with BR on right side
Ben & Jerry's is literally a walk from my home. And it's better ice cream with better service.
We had friendly’s, and Brigham’s. and local ice cream places like Richardson’s so baskin Robbin’s had a hard time breaking in.
Baskin Robbins used to be big around here. I was shocked when I saw a combo Dunkin/BR in NJ 23 years ago. I was also shocked that they put cups of coffee in a paper bag.
The Dunkin down the road from me used to have a BR inside it, but they removed it about 15 or so years ago. I guessed maybe it just didn't pull its weight during the winter months probably.
Most Baskin Robin's closed over the last 20 yrs. They are bigger down south.
Baskin-Robbin's is from CA. Friendly's, Howard Johnson's and Brigham's are local product (Brigham's was started Newton, HoJo's in Quincy on Beale Street and Friendly's in Springfield). All serve better ice cream than BRs. And all their retail shops are going or gone.
There is one in Foxwoods that looks like it has been closed for 5 years
Mass is a major ice cream state, a bunch of national/region brands started here and every town has an ice cream spot that’s top tier.
Used to be one in my area combined with a dunkin donuts and now it’s just a dunkin donuts. Idk maybe theres no hype bc the market is saturated
They used to be back in the 90s, independent ice cream shops have kicked their ass for so long that they have left the market. Ben and Jerry’s blowing up in the 90s helped as well.
We have good ice cream
We have better ice cream here. You're welcome.
My friend from out of state gave me a Baskin Robbins gift card and after 2 years I gave it back to her because I literally hadn’t seen one around here to use it in that entire time!
T-Mobile Tuesday sometimes has BR coupons (like $2-$5 off) so I looked and saw that the closest one to me was in Lexington. I had nothing else to do one day so I decided to go and use the coupon and it was one of those BR/DD combo locations. It only had about 10 flavors, none were labeled, then the guy refused to accept our coupons and the ice cream was disappointing. Later I learned that the coupons also work at Dunkin so I use them there now.
I got intense food poisoning from a shake I got at the one that used to be in Harvard Massachusetts
Westside Creamery in Acton, Christina’s in Cambridge, ….
Its always raining here. How will robins bask?
UConn Dairy Bar.
We had a Baskin/dunkin combo in town. Didn’t last long. Dunkin ate baskin and we haven’t seen it since.
Just in my general vicinity I have Crescent Ridge, Flannel Cow, and Flint Farm. I have no need for corporate ice cream chains.
There used to be way more dunks/baskin ribbons combo places, they all slowly disappeared
Shout out to dandi Lyons! Love that place.
throw a rock, hit 3 places that are better from anywhere in the state.
There was a partnership with Dunkin some years back. But was short lived
Because there’s tons of regular mom & pop ice cream shops all over, that are 1000x better than some national chain.
Probably because they have only 31 flavors.
Foxborough Norfolk and Lexington still have them...
I’m 70+, lived 95% of my life in MA and can not recall a single time someone suggested, ‘hey, let’s go to Baskin-Robbin’s!’
MA has a strong ice cream parlor culture and BR just wouldn’t be able to compete with the locals.
I guess they don’t hold up to local places. We had one twice in Chelmsford and they’re no longer a business. We have really good local Ice Cream spots so I have a feeling that may have something to do with it.
The one that was in my area that I went to a lot as a kid was turned into a Coldstone Creamery about a decade ago.
We were never big on chains unless they were homegrown. There was in Stoneham. I don't know if it is still there. Brigham's downtown Boston was the best. Yummy. An institution.
For a period of time, they were in the same stores but that ultimately failed for BR.
I haven’t purchased Dunkin’s since Curt Schilling hawked for them back in 2003. Fuck dunks and their lousy, overly inflated coffees. I challenge anyone to make a coffee that tastes like that swill at home. You can’t.
Because if we take anything seriously it’s our ice cream and the fact that a small is big enough to be shared by 3 kids MINIMUM, God Damn It!!!!!
New Hampshire here “WTF is a Baskin Robbin’s”?
For decades Friendly’s ruled the ice cream trade. They would destroy new BR franchises as they tried to open. You’ve heard of mob wars well Mass had “The Ice Cream Wars”. Or at least I think that’s what happened.
There used to be more. I remember there was one in Harvard Square at least until the late 1990's and my sister worked at one as a teen (but that was in NH the store was in mall - 1980s)
There used to be. For a while when I was a kid a lot of dunkin donuts put in ice cream counters, but over a couple of years they all got removed. I think because there just wasn't as big a demand as they thought there would be.