Puleo’s Ice Cream

This location is CLOSED.
The Highland Ave. dairy ice cream take-​out are still there (the ice cream is sold at the counter inside the Brother George’s restaurant.

thank you, nice and super accommodating gal this summer, for knowing what i meant when i ordered a mocha non-​fat frappé. your friend at your other location didn’t and, when i asked her to put half chocolate, half coffee together, she asked her supervisor if she could do that.
i am a gigantic fan of puleo’s anyway and go out of my way to buy their skimmed milk, but i’m super impressed with the cleanliness, kitschiness, and friendliness at the washington street location. it’s closer to my new apartment and i can get to it on foot so it’s an even bigger bonus.
p. s. the non-​fat frappé is excellent at either location. i don’t feel robbed of flavor or anything, which is how it can be sometimes with the lower-​fat options of any product.

Went in to see if what Eric S. was saying was true– is it possible for ice cream to be just «a-​ok»? During my first visit, yes it was.
The service: a-​ok. They were nice enough, and it may be cold inside working with ice cream, but it’s a treat to get some ice cream. Make customers feel like that.
The décor: a-​ok. Some cute old stuff from the early days of Puleo’s but pretty simple.
The ice cream: I got chocolate almond. I can’t believe I’m going to write this but here goes: the almond pieces were too big and overpowered the chocolate. I know, I know — if I just wanted chocolate w/​a little bit of nuts, I should have done so. I just wanted to try something different. My bad.
Scoop size: It was late and I had ice cream earlier in the day, so the size was fine for me. The kiddie size filled the whole cup, so that was more than what I was expecting.
Overall, it was a-​ok, but I definitely will go back and try again. I stole a scoop of my friend’s daughter’s cookie dough and that was wicked good. Plus I also stole a scoop of my friend’s chocolate heath bar and i liked that so much better than mine. Thus, I will be back and I expect that I will have a better experience than this first one…

I don’t want to say anything bad about this place but I really do have to give my honest impression. You see, Puleo’s dairy and the Puleo’s ice cream parlor on Highland Ave are considered to be something of a local legend, and the owner is a local contributor to town politics, etc.
However, to be honest, when I walked in the store, it seemed more like a funeral parlor than an ice cream store. And the kids behind the counter, while polite, seemed all too serious.
There’s a display case of old, ice cream memorabilia which is pretty cool but otherwise it’s pretty drab inside. If all you care about is getting in, getting your ice cream and getting out, that’s fine but with 4 – 5 other ice cream stores within 2 blocks, a little more should be done to make the interior look inviting.
As for the ice cream, I tried Frozen Pudding and Coconut Chocolate Chip. The ice cream itself was just fine but the scoop size really shocked me. I’m not exaggerating when I say that every place I’ve ever been to prior to this has scoop sizes where the ice cream is virtually hanging over the side of the cone with each scoop. But these were like medium-​sized balls that fit right on top of the cone… you know, like 2 – 3 bites per scoop, and gone.
So, Puleo’s, if you’re reading this, jazz up the inside of the store a little more and either get bigger scoops, or have your guys smile more and push harder when scooping so we get an ice cream cone to remember…
$ 2.76 was a lot to pay for two balls of ice cream only a little larger than a golf ball.