Four Remaining Brigham's Restaurants to Change Names

Many North Shore residents of a certain age may remember a time, as recently as the dawn of the 1980s, when there were two Brigham's Restaurants at both the Liberty Tree and North Shore Malls, as well as other nearby locations.

Over time, the Boston-area restaurant chain saw most of its locations close for various reasons. In 2008, Lynnfield-based Hood bought the Brigham's brand and its packaged ice cream business.

This week, Hood spokeswoman Lynn Bohan confirmed that the four remaining Brigham's-named restaurants (Arlington Heights, Andover, Quincy and Hingham), which are independently-owned franchises in the Boston area, will be changing their names in light of a decision to no longer sell Brigham's ice cream in three-gallon tubs.

The quart-sized Brigham's Ice Cream containers available in area supermarkets will not be affected at all.

"This was a difficult decision for us obviously but again, given the volume of sales of those three-gallon tubs, we just had to make the difficult decision to stop selling them," said Bohan, who also recalled how years ago, she once worked for Brigham's.

Bohan also noted that Brigham's continues to come up with new flavors, following on the heels of past innovations such as the Red Sox-themed Comeback Caramel and the birthday cake ice cream that was created for the brand's 90th anniversary.

This summer, the Brigham's brand is expected to release a new red velvet flavor, as well as a chocolate chip frozen yogurt under its Elan brand, reported Bohan.

A Wikipedia page for Brigham's says that the brand was established in 1914 by Edward Brigham in Newton Highlands and expanded to some 100 locations by the 1960s. The restaurant chain also reportedly pioneered offering free jimmies on ice cream (developed in 1910 by Samuel Born's Just Born Candy Company) and merged with Star Market in the 1960s.