A brand new ice cream and occasional store simply opened

The Blue Caboose is serving chilly brew, ice cream, and sundaes from a historic caboose in East Boston.

Madison Lucchesi

For years, East Boston residents strolling alongside the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway handed the identical sight: a brilliant blue prepare automotive sitting empty and coated in graffiti.

Right this moment, that caboose is serving chilly brew, ice cream, and sundaes.

Native entrepreneurs Troy Retzer and Liz Kelley opened The Blue Caboose ice cream and occasional store on June 3 after spending 5 years renovating the city-owned prepare automotive and navigating a prolonged strategy of allowing, building, and infrastructure challenges.

“I had by no means dreamed of getting an ice cream store,” Retzer mentioned. However after years of passing the deserted prepare automotive, the store grew to become one thing Retzer “needed personally” in his neighborhood and can hopefully “activate all the space.”

Liz Kelley (middle left) and Troy Retzer (middle proper) joined by their spouses outdoors of The Blue Caboose. *– Courtesy of Liz Kelley*

The caboose sits on the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway, close to Boston’s waterfront. Within the nineteenth century, a prepare automotive served as a kitchen for dockworkers on the East Boston piers. As delivery operations turned to trucking within the Nineteen Fifties, the same brilliant blue caboose was left behind and remained largely untouched for many years.

In 2021, Retzer approached the Metropolis of Boston, which owns the Nineteen Forties-era prepare automotive, about permitting a enterprise to function contained in the construction. Later that yr, he and Kelley received the rights to the area by way of a public bidding course of.

Retzer invited Kelley, proprietor of Journey Mug Cafe, to be his associate on the undertaking after years of having fun with espresso from her cellular enterprise.

Neither anticipated how sophisticated the renovation would grow to be.

The prepare automotive was “dilapidated” and coated in graffiti with bunk beds and the unique metal range nonetheless inside. Utility connections proved particularly difficult. Metropolis blueprints typically inaccurately reported the placement of close by sewage, electrical, and water hookups and the closest hookups turned out to be just a few blocks away.

Building halted each winter, whereas conferences with metropolis officers have been held biweekly or month-to-month.

“It was simply numerous figuring issues out as we went,” Kelley mentioned.

When confronted with continued renovation challenges, Kelley reminded Retzer that The Blue Caboose was turning into “the little engine that might.”

In April 2023, the pair introduced the undertaking on Instagram. “Our hearts are full to have the ability to restore a historic piece of Boston and convey a brand new gathering place to the neighborhood,” the publish mentioned.

Since then, the neighborhood has been eagerly awaiting its opening, typically commenting on years previous posts begging for an replace. Kelley mentioned the lengthy timeline turned the undertaking into one thing of a neighborhood legend as neighborhood members have been not sure it will truly open.

Regardless of solely a day’s discover of the opening on Instagram, the road was down the block at a number of factors. They bought 350 ice cream cones that day alone.

“We opened as quick as we have been capable of,” Kelley mentioned.

The neighborhood’s response to the opening was “overwhelming,” Kelley mentioned. The “entire [first] weekend was very packed.”

“The assist across the neighborhood and simply seeing how excited everyone seems to be for it has simply been unbelievable,” Retzer mentioned.

The Blue Caboose gives the Journey Mug Cafe’s common chilly brew, matcha, iced tea, and ice cream sundaes and chipwiches with flavors together with black bear, espresso cookies and cream, and salted caramel chocolate pretzel.

Retzer, who works full time in software program improvement and self-funded the undertaking, mentioned opening day felt just like the end result of years of labor.

There have been “numerous sleepless nights” and “numerous frustrations,” he mentioned. Now, Retzer will get to “sit again and rejoice.”

Kelley and Retzer hope to host a grand opening with Mayor Michelle Wu within the coming weeks, Kelley mentioned. A bigger celebration will doubtless have to attend till building on the encompassing greenway is accomplished.

The continued undertaking is anticipated to deliver benches and cafe-style seating, and a neighborhood backyard close to the caboose, in line with metropolis building plans. Kelley and Retzer plan to mark that completion with a bigger celebration when the the caboose reopens subsequent season.

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