Toscanini’s Ice Cream Company, often affectionately called “Tosci’s,” is a highly regarded ice cream parlor and café founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1981, notable for its artisanal, small-batch approach and innovative, frequently rotating flavors. The original and most famous location is in Central Square, though it briefly moved and had other past locations near MIT and Harvard Square. Co-founded by Gus Rancatore, who apprenticed at the pioneering Steve’s Ice Cream, Toscanini’s is known for unique and intense flavors, some of which are internationally inspired (like Kulfi), or the result of a “fortuitous mistake” (like Burnt Caramel, one of their most popular flavors, alongside B3: Brown Butter, Brown Sugar, and Brownies). The store has garnered critical acclaim, including multiple “Best of Boston” awards and being called “The World’s Best Ice Cream” by The New York Times, cementing its status as a beloved, high-quality local institution in the Boston area.
I developed part of the Toscanini’s site based on designs provided by Epitome Studio. The visual concepts were translated into responsive WordPress layouts, ensuring the site looked elegant while remaining easy for Tosci’s staff to manage and update.
Every day Toscanini’s makes fresh batches of ice cream and sorbet, and each store’s inventory shifts constantly as flavors sell out and new ones are introduced. I built a custom flavor management system in WordPress using Custom Post Types, taxonomies, ACF fields, and blocks. This system allows staff to create and update flavor entries easily. The flavor pages were designed for both the public website and in-store screens, giving staff and customers real-time visibility into what’s available, all within a consistent branded look and feel. A secure front-end makes it easy for staff to manage flavor inventory by store and date. A daily cron job automatically updates the website menus and the in-store displays, keeping everything accurate without requiring extra effort.
I also created a News section using a dedicated Custom Post Type with ACF fields and custom blocks. This gave Tosci an organized way to share updates, press mentions, and community stories while keeping the look and feel consistent across the site.
