Captain Dusty’s Ice Cream

ice crystals in the homemade hard ice cream? not making your own soft serve :(
not updating your hours? had shifted to 8pm close but didn’t change the sign outside (they did when we returned the next day). don’t know if there are better homemade ice cream places in Salem but there are plenty of others elsewhere and with better service

Witches Brew ice cream with Reese’s candy, espresso bits and something something.
Maybe not, but the coconut almond sounded like a good bet.
But, it was a bit too plain. Like vanilla ice cream with not enough almonds.
Skip this place and go to Salem Screamery instead.

Things I love about Captain Dusty’s: it is a 2 minute walk from my house, they have a ton of flavors, there are a lot of options (ie shakes, frapps, soft serve, frozen yogurt, etc)
Things I don’t love about Captain Dusty’s: inconsistent sizing for soft serve, amount of toppings depends on the person serving you, service can be super slow, it is much more expensive than I would expect (over $ 4 for a soft serve cone)
Overall will continue to visit when I NEED soft serve, but for the hard ice cream, I’ll probably just go to a convenience store and get a half gallon instead.

I live right down the street so its convenient. But I’m not a fan of this place. The icecream is as generic as a supermarket store brand. But I go because my boyfriend likes their rootbeer floats. That being said, let me continue. We went last night for what Im sure will be the last time. It was an unusually busy Sunday night in there and the girl behind the counter was by herself. Typically I would feel the servers pain. But not this obnoxious, full of attitude little prima donna! My boyfriend orders his typical rootbeer float but with, Im assuming, a non-​typical flavor of ice cream. The girl huffs and rolls her eyes at him and storms off to make it. I then order my small which consists office 2 scoops. I order 2 different flavors which again exasperates her. Anyhoo, we leave and sit down outside to partake in our purchase (Im not going to say Enjoy). My boyfriend looks down and sees a half filled cup. The little girl didnt have The patience to let The rootbeer foam subside and continue to fill as she should have. So we paid for ½ a rootbeer float. I would much rather go to Wendys and get a far superior 99 cent Frosty.

I find they’re ice cream okay I’d say. Over priced and give also very little amount. I don’t think if recommend a trip to Dusty’s just if you have a craving in the area.

We’re locals and usually like walking from the college area to Captain Dusty’s.
Never again.
When we got there, (Thursday evening ⁸⁄₂₁) the server was sitting on one of the coolers reading a book. She looked up at us and kept reading. A few throat clearings on my part and she looked up again, but did not acknowledge.
After more than a full minute, maybe two, she put her book down and finally said «Hi».
After being ignored for so long, my wife had already walked out and I was on my way.
I said: «no, keep reading your book» and she very cheerfully said: «Ok»
Too many other places for ice cream… sorry Cap’t. We had some nice gelato at Jaho down the street.

A great little ice cream shoppe with huge portions! I advise splitting a small because it’s more like a large. I’ve had the cookies and cream and the cappuccino heath, and both were great. They have a great selection of flavors and soft serve is available.
I wish there was a little more seating on the outside or inside, but it’s more of an ice cream stand with a parking lot.

I was relly down one night, so I went hear paid almost $ 5.00 for a ice cream cone I gave her a $ 20.00 she gave me change for a 10.00 I said mid all I have is 3 100.00 dollars bills and a 20.00 please ck. Without raven checking the registrar she said no, so it not being my night I turn around and walked out saying to myself let it go eat the dam 10 .00 $ cone I sit outside to eat the ice cream, minuets later a police car pull in the officer says he got a call saying iam drunk I said no I” am doing kemo I still had to go trough the drunk test, afterwards he call in the station to see if they know who called them he said sorry, So after all that don’t give these people your bissness not onley they rob me they tryed to arrest me to say ther ass from ther boss… Please don’t give these people you bissness not to get more aggaverated, I left the police ask if I want to make a complaint, not feeling good I went home.

Great location of you’re walking near Pickering Wharf and need an ice cream. The homemade ice cream is excellent. The college aged staff is great and very friendly! The prices are very reasonable and the lines aren’t bad. A little on the small side and kind of hectic if there it’s busy. The Swiss chocolate almond is amazing and the cookie dough is good as well. My daughter enjoyed the soft serve as well. She really liked the «flavor swirl» options as well. Definitely has a «classic» ice cream shop feel. Love it.

Great New England flavors for fro yo which made me happy. Got a purple cow w White Russian which was very tasty. Enjoyable little shop located by the water. Read @ history & the horrid fight to remain in bus & am def a fan of this sweet shop. It’s refreshing & the epitome of New England ice cream selections.

Long ago when I was in high school, I went to boston for a family summer vacation. We took a side trip to Salem and it had to be the hottest day there in a decade. The wax witch museum was more humorous and scary due to the heat being so intense that the faces of the wax figures were literally melting off. Upon exiting my family went to an ice cream parlor across the way. Maybe it was the heat or maybe it was that good. I don’t know but I wanted to to go back since I moved to Boston. Unfortunately, the true evil empire of dunkin donuts seems to be around where I vaguely remembered it. While waiting for a tour of the House of the Seven Gables, we made a short walk here and it lived up to everything I remembered of the ice cream shop I visited so many years before.
This place gets top marks. Maybe it was the original shop in a new location, maybe not. Regardless it is a great place to go out of the way to visit. Pretty typical old style ice cream place with friendly staff. However the ice cream itself was just amazing in taste. Great texture and a bit heavier than others out there. I had the royal Dutch chocolate and maple walnut. Taste bud heaven. I could have eaten about ten more scoops if I could have had more time! This is a must stop if you are in the area. Oh and they definitely take credit cards.

The last review said they don’t take credit cards, but they did for me tonight, so I’m not sure what that means.
Anyway, they’ve got a number of interesting flavors — they seem to really like adding stuff to the ice cream. And they have a number based on mint ice cream. Awesome. I got a kiddy scoop (overflowing as ice cream always is) of double fudge brownie. It was quite tasty — a bit rich, but brownie ice cream tends to be.
Good stuff

They accept cash or check only. You can park on the street or in their lot. All time fav for the summer. My daughter had a chocolate frappé and loved it. I believe they make their own ice cream as well … Can’t beat that! They also have locations in Beverly Farms and Manchester By the Sea.

I adore this place. Granted, I only really go when I’m working at the Gables during October, but it’s a great little establishment. The portions are good for the price and the people working there are friendly. The other actors and I often walk down in our Puritan costumes before our shows start and when they see us coming they make sure to give us extra napkins and wrap our cones in them so we don’t get the costumes dirty. I really appreciate the little things like that. And they do it without asking. Must know from experience. ;)

Nice little hole In the wall. Décor is inviting and vintage. Personally I like this for ice cream shops. They make their ice cream daily in house so you know it’s fresh.
Now everyone from New England know Richardson’s ice cream. Its great ice cream. But every ice cream shop seams the same when your getting all the same flavors of. Richardson’s ice cream.
Captain Dustys is a nice retreat from that. Flavors are amazing, and since its all being crafted daily by hand it gives Richardson’s freshness a run for its money.
Every bit as good as any other ice cream ship your been to plus more! Deffinatly worth a try if your in the aera and your sweet tooth is screaming.

Very fresh, very delicious! Captain Dusty’s is a bit «tourist trappy» meaning a small cup will cost you $ 4. You get a good amount of ice cream though. I enjoyed their fresh original flavor, «Witches Brew» that was a mix of chocolate ice cream mixed with twix, peanuts, chocolate chips. Their was a faint taste of coffee/​mocha in it– not sure what it was. Very good. Cash only, standing room only, no seating. A little dumpy which makes it either charming or gross. I can’t really tell. Overall, a good place to grab a scoop.

I love this place! They have amazing ginger ice cream. I always go here when I’m near the House of Seven Gables.
I’m surprised about all the people complaining on here, so to address what most people are complaining about:
1. Always look at the sizes of the cups. Don’t complain if you get something that’s huge when they have all the cup sizes laid out on the side! I always get kiddie.
2. Taste flavors before you buy. Someone was complaining about the pudding flavor– it’s not their fault that you don’t know what pudding flavored ice cream is! (See Brigham’s frozen pudding, classic New England flavor reminiscent of fruit cake.) They have no problem giving you a taster spoon.
3. It is a little dingy in there and could use some fresh paint, etc., but did you really come to a little ice cream stand for ambiance?

In my world pudding has a few select flavors: chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, and banana. So when I went to the Captain’s I figured ordering a «pudding» flavor cone would give me a chocolate or vanilla cone, perhaps a mix of the two. I never expected the combination that was presented to me: dried fruit marinated in faux rum and mixed with a vanilla ice cream. It was the color of salmon and tasted kinda like fruit cake.
At first I thought, well that’s interesting. After 2 or 3 bites I realized it was an abomination of ice cream and dried fruit. I choked down as much of it as I could without feeling bad about dumping it and just eating my cone but even that was too much for my stomach. My stomach now would like to kill me for eating such a horrible thing.
This cone will forever be referred to as the «laxative cone» and if I am ever constipated I know what will cure me. Stick with the overpriced but adequate soft serve cones, your stomach and plumbing will thank you.
Also in what alternate planet is a mix of dried fruit and vanilla called «pudding» seriously, was the «captain» insane when he/​she created this atrocity of a flavor? Call it fruit cake or warn your customers.

Yum! Cute little place with lots of great, original flavors. Even «Witch’s Brew» which is cute and appropriate for Salem. I had a little taste of it (milk chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips, chocolate covered coffee beans, kit kat pieces, and peanut butter cup pieces). I would have gotten it, but I really don’t like those chocolate covered coffee beans. Yuck!
Anyway… I did get a small cup and you can have TWO flavors in it. Decisions… Decisions. I chose pecan turtle and peppermint stick. Weird combo… but I’m kind of a weird chick so it worked for me. The former was yummy and very chunky with a nice caramel ribbon running through the vanilla ice cream and linking all the pieces of chocolate and nuts. The latter was THE BEST PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM I’ve ever had. So creamy and minty and fresh… With just the right amount of candy cane crunch!

I have to say, I have eaten a lot of ice cream in a lot of tourist towns. I’m a little surprised to see the negative reviews here. My family had two soft serve twists, and two cones with hard ice cream (I had grape nut), and we had no complaints. The ice cream was on a par with many others we have had. The selection of flavors was good, the service was fine (they opened a 2^nd register when a short line started to form). The location is outstanding, near Derby Wharf. I would gladly eat here again. Note: none of us had a frappé.
Does not accept credit cards, cash or check only.