Gray's Ice Cream

16 East Rd., Tiverton, RI - (401) 624-4500

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Posted By Michael Stern on July 28, 2009 9:49 AM

It is a fact that New England has the best ice cream in the nation; the question is: where in New England is the best of the best? Many aficionados vote for Gray’s, a one-of-a-kind general store and ice cream parlor that has been making its own since Ms. Gray opened in the kitchen of her home here in 1923. Owned and operated since 1981 by Marilyn Dennis, it remains a quirky kind of business, still offering a miscellany of groceries and household items and a very short counter for indoor dining. Most customers eat in their car in the broad parking lot or at one of a handful of picnic tables with a view of Mrs. Dennis’s llama and cows (of the former, she complained, “he’ll eat weeds before alfalfa hay, and has no interest in ice cream cones.”)

The ice cream is grand and dignified, as opposed to the giddy, silly sorts of high-priced pints that derive their personality from mix-ins of candy bars and cookies. Gray’s myriad flavors are simple and comprehensible, including all the usuals, plus New England favorites Grape-Nuts and frozen pudding. Note especially ginger ice cream, made from real ginger root, flecks of which dot the creamy white custard. And the coffee ice cream has been honored with “best of” awards by Rhode Island magazine for more than a decade. It is an endearing kind of coffee flavor, very creamy and just sweet enough, robust but not at all overcaffeinated or bitter.

Indeed, Rhode Islanders love all manner of coffee-flavored creamery concoctions, ranging from the ubiquitous “coffee milk” to Gray’s luscious coffee cabinet. Coffee milk is like chocolate milk, but made with coffee syrup instead of chocolate. A cabinet is Rhode Islandese for a foamy blend of milk, syrup, and ice cream – known elsewhere as a milk shake; here at Gray’s, order a coffee milk shake and you get coffee milk, i.e., nothing but milk and coffee syrup. Got that?

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coffee cabinet

ginger ice cream

Strawberry Ice Cream

Frozen Pudding Ice Cream

Mocha Chip Ice Cream

Vanilla Ice Cream

Hot Fudge Sauce

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Posted By Jonathan Cohen on August 11, 2004 10:47 PM

Gray's is one of New England's classic roadside ice cream stands, located on a pleasant bayside road in eastern Rhode Island. We went with classic local flavors- coffee and maple walnut. Both were exemplary. This is the kind of ice cream you might have grown up with- simple, creamy and well-flavored, not the fancier, yuppified kind. The atmosphere is pleasant, too, with park-style picnic tables- though we didn't see the llamas. If we lived in Providence, we'd have been happy to take a couple of half-gallons home. As it is, Gray's is well worth the ride from Boston.

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