Chocoholic

Pizzi Farm in Waltham turned up as a surprisingly nearby option, for a place I'd never heard of (or accidentally driven past) before. They're sort of a "near miss" from some major routes - they're about halfway between Trapelo and Totten Pond roads, and halfway between Wyman St/128 and Lexington St. If you're on the section of 128 south of 2 and you see that hillside encrusted with large shiny office buildings? They're half a mile behind those.

Just because I hadn't been there, doesn't mean they're unknown - possibly because they were still open late even though it's September, there were twenty people on line ahead of me at 8:30pm. I don't think any place I've written about has been that busy, short of a downtown Boston J.P. Licks after a game.

They had four windows open and were serving reasonably efficiently - I still had a 15m wait, under a minute per person, but that shouldn't scare you off. I went back the next afternoon and there was only a ten person line; according to their website this place does stay open all winter.¹

First Visit

They have a lengthy menu, including Campfire S'mores and Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. I went with Chocoholic and Graham Central Station on my return visit, but got distracted by their soft serve - I don't think I've ever seen Creamsicle soft serve before!

Unfortunately, if you look closely, that machine is already switched over to fall flavors - Maple and Pumpkin (presumably a Maple-Pumpkin Twist given how those are configured.) So I went with my classic, a vanilla soft-serve chocolate dip cone.

Yes, it's pretty drippy as-served but that's pretty standard for dip cones.

Second Visit

I don't usually go right back to a place, but poking around the map I discovered Prospect Hill Park was nearby and had some interesting looking hill-climbing trails, so it seemed like a good combination - a big serving of ice cream and then some exploration. (Fall foliage in New England is unevenly distributed, so it turned out to be a photographer's dream combination of Sunset and Autumn Leaves along some otherwise sparsely used trails.)

The Graham Central Station was great, I think it's a relatively new flavor but I'm happy to see it more places. The Chocoholic had a nice dark chocolate flavor to it, but was a little less creamy than I expected, at least to my Tosci's-attuned tastes.

They also have Sundaes, Ice Cream Sodas, Frappes, Smoothies, Raspberry Lime Ricky, and Slush; they also have something blizzard-like called (appropriately, and I assume non-trademarkedly) "The Nor'easter".

I think for my next visit it's a tossup between trying the Maple soft-serve and their Hardy Pond Mudd² flavor, though the Coffee Fudge and Strawberry Cheesecake also look tempting.