Boxcar Barney's — Restaurant in Town of Chautauqua

The ice cream? Sure, it’s fine—if your taste buds are feeling wildly adventurous and want to play “guess that flavor.” But the real showstopper here is the service: a thrilling blend of mayhem and mystery. Think “Hunger Games” but with waffle cones.

There’s no system, no logic—just pure, unscripted chaos. Orders fly out randomly, often landing in the hands of those who just strolled in while you age gracefully by the counter. And if your order disappears into the void? Don’t worry—it’s probably off having a deep conversation with an employee’s phone.

The ambiance? Oh, it’s a whole vibe—if “sad roadside attraction with commitment issues” is what you're going for. They kindly ask you to clean up after yourself, but provide absolutely nothing to do that with. Bonus points for the cheeky sign reminding you they're not a charity... because nothing screams "hospitality" like weaponized snark and a 25-cent cup surcharge.

Speaking of surcharges—maybe toss that cup tax into a GoFundMe for a bigger dumpster. The current one’s clearly auditioning for a role in a post-apocalyptic horror film. So if you're in the mood for a dumpy scavenger hunt and a surprise ending to your ice cream order, this place is...

On our tour of ice cream places in Western PA, Eastern OH and SW NY, we happen to stumble upon Boxcar Barney's.

Really nice location, you can sit in the Adirondack chairs or lounge at the picnic tables to enjoy the view (remotely) of the lake. Very pretty setting and perfect for a sunny summer day and ice cream.

We always comment on how some places have "grainy" soft serve or varying degrees of creamy. Here, we totally enjoyed the creaminess of the soft serve. A bit of a surprise for two small cones coming in at ten bucks but then again, the portions were generous and the location made up for the rest. Cones without a paper sleeve, which was odd, seeing we live in the age of Covid. Regardless, nice place, nice staff and a good old fashioned treat on a day made for it. Oh ... and the only place we have seen so far with PASTEL sprinkles. Not a huge thing but enough to set it apart from all the other standard color...

I think they had better re-evaluate thier portion sizes. When I order a 2 scoop cone I expect a reasonable 2 scoop cone. I think I received what was equivalent to 4 scoops...this cone was obnoxious. I had to request a bowl because the ice cream was dripping all over. Luckily we ate it there, outside and had extra napkins. I had a dark chocolate raspberry cone, nothing on them, just didn't care for it. I'm sure they have other flavors that would suit most. My other half had medium chocolate/vanilla twist ,well it was a large and then some. So if you have kids and go here, get the smallest size, cause it's likely to be more than enough. Thier prices were reasonable when you factor in the amount of ice cream you actually get. I was told by the worker larger portions are what they are known for. Me I just want a simple 2 scoop cone. If you have a huge appetite for ice cream, this is your...