Gracie’s Ice Cream Reopens for the Spring

The window at Gracie’s ice cream. / Photo by Tyler Machado

As the days grow just a little bit longer, Gracie’s Ice Cream is back in Union Square—and it has a couple new business partners. Bread & Salt Hospitality owners Josh Lewin and Katrina Jazayeri, the couple that opened nearby Juliet just yesterday, have joined forces with Gracie’s owner Aaron Cohen.

“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,” Cohen says.

How exactly the partnership will play out remains to be seen, but “Customers will notice some changes from when we were last open,” he says.

One such difference is instant cocoa on the menu. Cohen had wanted to add a hot drinks program, but lacked the space for the necessary equipment. It was Jazayeri’s idea to make instant cocoa powder in-house, and Lewin is developing different recipes for rotating flavors. Gracie’s will debut a regular version tomorrow, and Cohen expects spicy chocolate in the not-so-distant future. Gracie’s is now also offering coffee for the first time.

In addition to creating the drinks program, the Gracie’s team has been mixing the whimsical ice cream flavors it introduced to the neighborhood last year. Say hello to salty whiskey, chocolate Fluff, lemon lime sorbet, “poptartpurri,” made with chunks of toaster pastry; and more.

Gracie’s shuttered December 28, Eater Boston reported. The Somerville ice cream shop had opened right before the holidays the previous year, and had stayed open throughout last winter, snowstorm after snowstorm, adjusting its hours accordingly.

During this winter’s hibernation, Cohen welcomed his second child. He felt the store “would have suffered from lack of attention without Bread & Salt coming on board (to say nothing about Gracie and Callum suffering from lack of attention, something I wasn’t willing to risk).”

Bread & Salt plans to help Cohen on the business end of things to begin with, Lewin says.

Gracie’s is open 2:30-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and 2:30-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

22 Union Square, Somerville, MA 02143; 617-764-5294 or graciesicecre.am.

UPDATE, March 1, 10 a.m.: An earlier version of this article misstated that Gracie’s is closed on Mondays. It is now open seven days a week.