Tyler and I left Thursday afternoon for New Jersey, flying into Trenton-Mercer Airport (TTN) for the first time. When we previously visited, we had flown into Newark, but since it was a similar distance from the shore and a lot cheaper – gotta go where the cheap flights take you – we opted for TTN.
What we did not take into account is that Trenton is tiny. Like, two-gates-only tiny. It’s not exactly a hotbed of transportation options. After waiting 20+ minutes for our ~$100 Uber to pick us up and drop us at our B&B, we were starving. My airplane Chex mix snack was no longer cutting it.
What we learned soon after checking in is that not much is open in Ocean Grove past 8pm. This can obviously be problematic if you’re looking for a place to eat a later dinner – our recommendation would be to take the footbridge or boardwalk over to Asbury Park for more options. That being said, we managed to find a few restaurant options for a Thursday night, one of which was Days Ice Cream.
With excellent Google reviews and the latest hours we saw at any local restaurant, I was willing to go all-in on ice cream for dinner; Tyler suggested we hold off until the next day, since he was looking for something with a little more sustenance. Fast forward to Friday night, after we got drinks at Watermark in Asbury Park, we made our way over to Days.
Y’all, it was packed. The line went off the porch and down the sidewalk, which told us that this ice cream was worth waiting for – especially as people lined up behind us! Fortunately, the line moved quickly, and in less than 10 minutes, we were able to place our order at the window.
Shortly after that, our names were called, and we brought our treats over to a small patio table. I had a “small” cone, but with two heaping scoops of ice cream, it was anything but small. They had a lot of fun flavors to choose from, and we enjoyed trying some new ones. They know what they’re doing with salted caramel!
Tyler and I both enjoyed our ice cream so much, we made another stop at Days on Saturday afternoon. As a general rule, I don’t eat places twice on vacation, as there are too many other good places to try – as we learned eating around Toronto this summer, we couldn’t even get to all of them! But for every rule, there must be exceptions. Lucky for us, it was a lot less crowded in the afternoon, and Days Ice Cream was the perfect way to tide ourselves over before the wedding.
This place is exactly the sort of local restaurant you want to support again and again. Whether it’s 9pm on a weeknight or 2pm on a Saturday, you don’t want to miss out on these creamy treats. They’re summer in a cone (or cup)! And our recommendation: don’t miss out on the Graham Cracker Crunch. 😉
Looking for other summer eats?