Friendly's Ice Cream: An Appreciation

While there is more excellent ice cream in Connecticut than is probably good for us, I'd just like to put in a late-season word or two of appreciation for . . . Friendly's. Yes, Friendly's. Friendly's ice cream is available everywhere, yet it's somehow overlooked when the experts start handing out bouquets for the best in the state. It probably shouldn't be compared with the ice cream found at free standing establishments where doting owners labor over their handmade batches. Instead, Friendly's descends from an equally noble, and notable, lineage: the New England dairy bar. There aren't too many genuine dairy bars left in Connecticut, but in my neck of the woods there once was Litchfield Farms, which later became Farm Shoppes, which eventually was bought out by Friendly's. In all iterations, the ice cream was the key, even though Friendly's advanced the menu in other respects. (As an aside, I'd like to point out that a Friendly's burger, fries and shake is still pretty hard to beat.) My point is that no one ever sings the praises of Friendly's main product, probably because the chain is too big and too ubiquitous. We take it for granted, but it's much better than the local packaged ice cream you find in other parts of the country. When the half-gallons are on sale at the grocery store, I stock up, in any season. I'm a fool for the vanilla, coffee and pistachio (although it's time to stop using green food coloring in the last), although I've sometimes craved the black raspberry and butter crunch, too, and I long for a return of the limited-time-only toasted almond of a few years ago. My question is whether there are any other dairy bars or dairy-bar descendents that package their ice cream for sale in Connecticut grocery stores, or just in their own shops, and that are worth knowing about. The UConn Dairy Bar is one . . . any others?