Dairy Witch Ice Cream

This was the find of the year! Too bad they are closing this week until next year… We absolutely fell in love with the almond chocolate yogurt. You haven’t lived until you have tried it!!!

I absolutely fell in love with this cute little place. I was there 3 times in a week. The banana whip frappé is must have for banana lovers as it is creamy and the banana bits get through the straw. For take along pints i tried the pistachio nut that was yummy and one day the coconut. Both were lovely. Just sad the hotel room had no freezer. The last night in town I got the Tom Brady sundae which was soft serve vanilla, or you can get chocolate, layered with hot fudge, peppermint, and brownie bits. I only needed someone to share it with. The place is walk up only and line moved swiftly. Staff is friendly so give them send love and stay away from the chains.

Smooth and creamy soft serve — the vanilla and chocolate twist with a cherry dip is the bomb dot com. Super friendly service, long lines and all. Only down fall is it gets crowded and parking is tight, yo – but how lucky is everyone who lives in the neighborhood to be able to walk here? I’m jealous!

Great ice cream for a great price!

Came here with my little brother and it’s almost easy to miss this place if you’re not from salem.
The parking was probably the worst for me to be honest. It’s very tiny and confusing when you can only enter through one direction of the tiny parking lot. Other than that, the place gives nice portions on ice cream and the staff are friendly and attentive.
My brother ordered the Reeses cup sundae and I really wish I took a picture of it because it was SOOOO huge and looked amazing. Will definitely order a soft serve from here next time.
Note that this isn’t actually an ice cream parlor where you go inside and can sit indoors. You order from outside and figure out the rest later.

Best soft serve around, also very good orange freezes and root beer floats. My favorite ice cream stand. The peanut brittle topping is a north shore favorite.

Best ice cream best slush puppies!!! They’ll even give you extra shocker no charge WAHOO!!! The people working there are awesome and clearly love their jobs! So glad I saw it as we were driving by and made a last minute pull in! And have I mentioned that its cheap??? Well it is!!! So get there now :-)

I’m a Kentucky import, and down there ice cream isn’t such a big thing. Here, there’s almost as many ice cream joints as there are Dunkies. Dairy Witch stands out from the pack. They have many many delicious and unique flavors. Most everything they serve matches my idealized notion of how it should be. Where I was from in Kentucky all the ice cream was run by big corporate chains like Baskin Robbins where flavors were plentiful, but uninteresting. At the Witch, servings are huge, toppings are piled on, and you’re know you’re going to see good people who work there and shop there, like family. If you’re visiting town, this place is worth the stop.

I’ve been going to this place for years, and the day they take the boards off and put up the open sign is always a happy day for me. I LOVE their soft serve. This past year I developed a serious addiction to their Reese’s sundae. They don’t have too many flavors of hard ice cream, but if that’s you’re thing, like my girlfriend, I’d go for either the apple crisp or the butter pecan.
NEVER CHANGE DAIRY WITCH! NEVER CHANGE!!!

I LOVE this place. I’ve been going since I was a kid. There’s something perfect about a warm summer evening and soft-​serve ice cream. The service is quick and friendly and the prices, while a bit higher than they used to be, are still much better than some of the other ice cream places in the area and the servings are GENEROUS. My only (very minor) complaint is the parking lot is tough to maneuver around but just take it slow and you’ll be fine. It’s worth it!

Standard basic roadside ice cream stand, featuring primarily soft serve, but with a token offering of a dozen and half or so hard ice creams as well. And there’s not a damn thing wrong with that.
My wife adores soft serve. As such, we’ve visited the Witch several times since we moved around the corner recently. I want soft serve once or twice a year at most. The Witch fulfills both of our needs. I don’t think you’ll taste either the hard or soft ice cream and think it’s the best you’ve ever had, but it’s ice cream, and it’s right around the corner. It’s all good.
I tend to judge ice cream places by their coffee Oreo. The Witch doesn’t offer that flavor. Sad trombone.

Classic walk-​up soft serve and hand-​scooped ice cream place. There were quite a few people in and out in the short time we ordered and ate. They do have a few unique things, including a Bruins themed sundae. Will definitely go back.

I do like my ice cream! It’s just ice cream… But I really, really enjoy the fact that they have those shell coatings. Vanilla soft serve with cherry shell is my absolute favorite. I had a frap once. It was blackberry. It was big. It was waaaay too sweet. It was perfect for me. Though I was really full at the time and couldn’t finish it after two sips. Blackberry coca cola float? Delicious. For some reason, I expected the float to be really icy, but it wasn’t. The soda was bubbly and the ice cream was of the «hard» variety, but still smooth and creamy.
I like it. It’s a plain Jane ice cream stand to me and that’s good enough. I do like looking around the stand and surveying the old posters.

This is my fave place in Salem to get Ice Cream. I love the variety that they offer– always get something different. I don’t like that they are not open year round– but totally get why. I am just being selfish.

One of the saddest hints that summer is over and the icy blasts of winter are on the way, is driving past Dairy Witch on Boston Street and seeing the white plywood boards fastened over the take-​out windows, with the uneven, hand-​painted red lettering stating: «Closed for the Season. See you in the Spring.» The little planting of summer flowers in the mound by the road gradually withers away, and you know it’s over till next year.
Not a fancy place, by any stretch of the imagination — Dairy Witch is one of those roadside Americana kitschy places that earn our grudging affection. On a hot summer night, it’s a guilty pleasure to get a Dairy Witch frappé or sundae or ice cream soda and juggle your motor vehicle into one of those awkwardly angled parking spaces in the narrow lot to enjoy your ice-​creamy booty.
The hard ice cream is good enough quality and there are lots of flavors. There are sherbets and sugar-​free treats for those who have dietary concerns.
Cheap-​quality soft-​serve is kinda grainy with a chemical aftertaste. But it’s fine with toppings or as the foundation for a sundae, and it has lower fat content than hard ice cream if you’re watching calories and saturated fats.
As soon as the plywood comes down at the Witch, however, I’ll be stopping by for a two-​tone soft-​serve twist in a cake cone, or a vanilla soda with chocolate ice cream. Worth dreaming about during our long New England winters, though this winter of 2011 – 2012 has been so mild so far that we’ve been going out for ice cream at year-​round Treadwell’s.

crappy soft serve is a poetic thing. crappy cheap soft serve with local flavor is the dairy witch.
i notice on Unilocal this category called «local flavor.» if i were to define such a thing, it would probably involve eateries and items particular to the youth and culture of certain cities. most of the time, these things are cost effective, and elusive to many tourists, but perhaps also the best way for those that do a good amount of sleuthing to meet those who have lived in that area for a lifetime. sure, the dairy witch is a kitschy roadside stand, with a silly name, with none too special ice cream, soft serve, and slush puppies, and with high schooler employees who will no doubt look back at their golden years serving up sweet swirls at an institution of a bygone era. «you from salem?» «you kidding? I worked at the daily witch.»
whatevs. i like the place. after mounds of other not too healthy food from peabody’s walnut street, i always finish off with a medium coffee flavored soft serve in a cake cone, all dipped in that magical butterscotch hard coating. i love it. it’s simple, and on a hot day, it feels so much like a quintessential new england summer.
i know the dairy witch is a bit away from downtown, but if you find yourself in salem for an extended period of time, it’s really a neat little place.

I have been going to Dairy With since I was a wee little laddy and let me just say this place has really changed over the years… for the worse! The girl who took our order was the dairy witch! I ordered the mix-​ins which is the generic version of a Blizzard with Reese’s peanut butter cups and health bar and the vanilla soft serve didn’t hold the candy with the same texture the blizzard has. It was like soup when she handed it to me. Also, the soft serve just didn’t taste good. It tasted cheap and chemically. Dairy Witch just doesn’t have the same appeal as it used to when I was a kid. Poor service, poor taste, and expensive for the quality.
Final Answer: The juice is not worth the squeeze!

It doesn’t take much for an iced cream stand to get 5 stars. They have all the classics, sundaes, frappes, shakes, cones, dips, and even sorbets and frozen yogurts. It has only changed very slightly since I was a kid. The service here is really fast and sadly becoming too young for me to kick my fly game to.
I still come here whenever I’m in town to get a shake. Keep your eyes peeled when your pulling in for the inevitable army of snotnosed kids running around. A vehicular homicide could ruin your Dairy Witch experience. Other than that you can’t go wrong with this place. 5 stars

A local staple in Salem, this ice cream stands offers a variety of soft and hard serve ice cream, as well of flavors of frozen yogurts and even some sugar free ice cream.
The staff, usually consisting of high school girls, work very efficiently and well together and really know how to handle the large crowds.
You will always see the base/​soft ball leagues there after their games (I was once part of that crowd, it’s the one thing we looked forward to)
The prices are pretty much average, they have gone up over the past years, but only minimally.
It’s good for kids, teenagers, adults, all around

It’s not too early to think about spring and spring in Salem doesn’t truly begin until Dairy Witch opens. It’s the ice cream equivalent of opening day at Fenway. A Salem institution which has not changed it’s physical appearance in decades. Staffed by a friendly group of young ladies who are polite and efficient as they work the large crowds who gather here most nights. Attracts primarily a soft serve crowd although they do offer the traditional variety. It’s not unusual to find the local little league teams or soccer teams here to celebrate their victories or console themselves after a tough loss. Dairy Witch also offers dips in chocolate, cherry and butterscotch which result in a delicious sweet shell covering your soft serve. The hot fudge sundae is highly recommended. Whipped cream and nuts are free. Take out only.
Interesting factoid: A young woman named Margaret Thatcher was a member of a British chemical research team who invented soft serve ice cream.