NORTH SMITHFIELD – A North Smithfield farm that produces the state’s only, “cow to cone,” experience has been named the best ice cream shop in Rhode Island by Food & Wine Magazine.
Wright’s Dairy Farm & Bakery was featured in the publication’s list of the best stops for ice cream in all fifty states.
“Hopefully this list, which didn’t necessarily favor old or new, but rather asked the question, fifty times, what feels the most essential, depicts as well as it can, the diversity and depth of our national ice cream culture,” the publication noted. “At the very least, let’s hope it inspires you to get out there and try something new. It’s summertime, after all.”
The century-old farm on Woonsocket Hill Road makes ice cream right on the premises, using milk and cream from the cows that live there, creating the state’s only fresh, “cow-to-cone,” experience, a process that takes two days, according to the business.
“The base consistency is somewhere between heavy cream and vanilla pudding,” notes a write-up by Wright’s on the chilled snack. “The ice cream base is cooked in 30 gallon batches in a large kettle in the bakery.”
“From humble custard pies to elaborate wedding cakes to cones piled high with ice creams in all kinds of classic New England flavors, there are all sorts of reasons to pay a visit to Wright’s Dairy Farmin North Smithfield, a Rhode Island fixture for roughly a century now,” Food & Wine noted. “Being a bakery as well as the state’s best scoop shop, you tend to get crossover ideas — one of the finest flavors here is the Compost Cream, a vanilla ice cream ribboned with chocolate ganache and stuffed with cookies, from pecan diamonds to coconutty magic bars.”
In 2019, Wright’s purchased a 1966 Streamline trailer, and had it fully renovated into an ice cream shop. The full-time scoop shop now serves up the homemade stuff each year from April through October, with hours Monday through Thursday from 1 to 8:30 p.m.; and Friday through Sunday from noon to 9 p.m., weather permitting.
