Yeah, yeah, the flowers are beautiful. And the rotisserie chickens are great. But now Tilly’s Ice Cream has officially made its debut at Tilly & Salvy’s Bacon Street Farm.
We were among the first customers to show up on Friday afternoon after the ice cream trailer opened for business, offering soft-serve and classic ice cream truck novelties.
Business was already booming, with the owners hobnobbing, a smattering of adults slipping in ahead of the kid rush, and then gaggles of children racing ahead of their parents to Tilly’s from nearby bus stops.
We opted for one regular size vanilla soft-serve with cherry dip and a vanilla-chocolate twist cone with chocolate dip (they set us back $11), then headed to the picnic tables.
We used the heat and melting ice cream as excuses for chowing them down faster than is typically polite. We chatted with friends, most of us making new fashion statements as we did by drip-dripping our snacks onto our shirts. Sticky hands prevented some from shaking with new acquaintances, though a hose was handy for washing up.
Resident Ellen Mangano, who lives dangerously close to the new ice cream trailer, said “It’s a great addition to the neighborhood and such a family business.” She smartly went with a cup of soft-serve given the warm weather.
Tilly’s owner Rick Ciccarelli said they’ve been thinking about adding an ice cream shop for years, maybe devoting a section of the store to it and installing walk-up windows. But then his son Ryan suggested a trailer, which is what they wound up going with. Offering scooped ice cream would require more space.
One question from a patron we heard as we headed to the parking lot: “When’s the beer trailer coming?”
Operating hours for the ice cream trailer are slated to be Monday-Friday 2pm-830pm, Saturday-Sunday 12pm-830 pm.
Natick is now embarrassingly ice cream rich, with Tilly’s, Dairy Queen, Park Street, and Ben & Jerry’s within its confines. Plus, Scoopapalooza is scheduled for June 21 on Natick Common.
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