Sweet Childs O’Mine
Mystic Sweets and Ice Cream Shoppe, Groton
As we continue our trek around the state eating and enjoying every home/housemade ice cream place, I think I have the experience to say that this place on Mystic’s Main Street is the only one directly across the street from another one: Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream. You can see Calvin’s growth over the intervening year, but his love of ice cream has stayed the same.)
Mystic being Mystic, the only true tourist area in the state, it can support two overpriced homemade ice cream shops 30 feet from one another. I’ve no problem with that.
However, I DO have a problem with the fact that both shops provide the ice cream cup eater with cheap, flimsy, borderline useless plastic spoons. I realize this is a high rent district, but with the $5 per scoop prices, I think they can afford to get a higher quality spoon.
Drives me nuts.
And you know what else, since I’m on a rant for some reason – when your shop insists upon cutesy names for various flavors and combinations, it would be fanTAStic if you could provide short descriptions of what, say, “Seagull Tracks,” and “Pirate’s Booty” actually are. At least what the base ice cream is so I don’t have to ask the girl texting behind the counter simple facts about seven different stupidly named flavors. Is that so hard to do?
Anyway, the two shops are also quite different. Mystic Drawbridge’s draw, ahem, is the bridge and the view of the river. I think it has food and stuff too. This place has a ton of candy, much of it of the retro and fudge variety – along with some odd things like the mango-chili taffy.
Frankly, it all looked a bit jumbled and dusty to me. The shop reminded me of a set piece from Deadwood or something. No matter, we were here for the ice cream. Calvin with the strawberry, Damian with the vanilla and Hoang with the Mystic Macchiato – one scoop of vanilla with a shot of espresso poured over it.
This was a revelation to her. You can find this concoction in many places, but I guess it was a first time for her, as she couldn’t rave enough about it.
We got one of the the only two indoor little tables available and proceeded to annoy others for the next half an hour, as Calvin insists on a) finishing the whole thing, b) refusing any and all help to achieve that goal. And the child rather likes to enjooooyyyy his desserts.
I wandered around outside for a spell and took my quickie picture of the outside of the tiny shop. Some old men were sitting at the tables there and positively flipped out on me. My picture was horrible and blurry, so it didn’t matter a whit, but guys, you’re in Mystic. There are thousands of people taking hundreds of thousands of pictures all day, every day. Get over it.
The ice cream here is good, but since ice cream is usually a summer treat, and getting to the center of Mystic in the middle of summer is nearly impossible, I’ll leave this place to the tourists. We didn’t buy any of the candy, but I will someday.
2022 Update: That someday finally came, here.
CTMQ’s Homemade Ice Cream Trail
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