It's a balmy 40-something degree day, and signs of spring have already begun popping up. Sullivan's reopened on Castle Island over the weekend, for example, and Gracie's Ice Cream reopens at 2:30 p.m. today (March 1) in Somerville's Union Square, following a brief hibernation.
In honor of the reopening, purchase a hot cocoa and get a free scoop of ice cream in it today. That's right — Gracie's is now offering coffee, tea, and house-made "instant" hot cocoa. Thanks to the addition of partners Josh Lewin and Katrina Jazayeri, who just opened Juliet next door yesterday, there will be other expanded menu options in the future. And as for the ice cream, there will be the "same silly flavors, but also some new silly ones," co-owner Aaron Cohen told Eater. "And probably some serious ones," he added.
He also released a statement regarding the growth of the team:
"I'm excited to welcome Katrina and Josh from Bread & Salt Hospitality/Juliet to the Gracie’s team. We’ll be reopening [today], March 1st from our winter hibernation, and customers will notice some changes from when we were last open. Katrina and Josh are really going to add a lot of polish and discipline to what we’ve been doing, and I’m looking forward to see what some of the more zany Gracie’s ideas look like filtered through their experience. For example, I really wanted hot cocoa, but we don't have the room for the right equipment, so Katrina suggested homemade 'instant cocoa' and Josh developed some rotating recipes for it. We’ll be talking more about all this in the next few weeks, but for now, Juliet opened yesterday and Gracie’s is reopening today. Come visit!"
Gracie's current hours are 2:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 2:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The shop generally offers a rotating selection of a dozen flavors, including a non-dairy option. Past flavors have included salty whiskey, chocolate Fluff (that's available today), smoky chocolate peanut butter, grapefruit and black pepper sorbet, day after Easter on sale candy, and loads more.
