Goodnight Fatty is located in the historic Andrew–Safford Carriage House, tucked beside Salem Common and owned by the Peabody Essex Museum. The Andrew–Safford House was built in 1819, during Salem’s great merchant era, and the property remains one of the city’s most recognizable, and opulent historic landmarks.

But for us, this place has never just been historic. It has always been personal.

I grew up across the Common from this building. When I was a kid, the carriage house was home to Sweet Scoops, an ice cream shop run by Bob Colombosian of Colombo Yogurt. It was the kind of place that gave a kid a very strategic reason to offer to walk the family dog. Ice cream was involved.

Bob used to park his classic sports car in the courtyard, and the car became part of the pull. You came for something sweet, but you also came because the place had a pulse. It felt local. It felt a little special. It felt like Salem.

After Sweet Scoops closed, the space sat quiet for years, with a brief life as an art gallery and later as a wood shop for the Peabody Essex Museum. Then in 2018, after years of running Goodnight Fatty as a late-night pop-up down a dark alley, my wife Jen asked why the space was empty. Her curiosity ultimately lead to the PEM giving us the chance to be the next stuart of the space.

Today, we serve warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven Fatties, house-made soft serve, and Bottomless Milk from the same nostalgic little corner that made me fall in love with dessert in the first place. Bob had his sports car. We have our vintage Fatty Wagon parked in the courtyard – weird, boxy, impossible to miss, and quite possibly the most photographed vehicle in Salem after Llego Papa.

So yes, Goodnight Fatty is a cookie and ice cream shop. But we’re also proud to be part of a longer Salem story: historic buildings, strange little businesses, local characters, sweet things, odd vehicles, and the kind of place you remember after you leave.

If you’re visiting Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum is a must stop, and while you’re on campus, come find us across from Salem Common, the Hawthorne Hotel, and the Salem Witch Museum. We’ll be the ones in the historic carriage house making the whole place smell like cookies.

– Erik Sayce
Owner, Goodnight Fatty

The Andrew–Safford property is owned by the Peabody Essex Museum.
Learn more about PEM and Salem’s historic architecture through the museum’s historic house resources.