A longtime abandoned caboose on the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway in East Boston has been transformed into The Blue Caboose, an ice cream and coffee shop offering cold brew, sundaes, and chipwiches. The owners spent five years renovating the city-owned 1940s-era t
On the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway in East Boston, people used to pass a bright blue train car that sat empty for years—its sides covered in graffiti, its interior largely forgotten.
Today, that same caboose is serving cold brew, ice cream, and sundaes.
The Blue Caboose opened on June 3. Entrepreneurs Troy Retzer and Liz Kelley spent five years renovating the city-owned train car and working through permitting. construction. and infrastructure challenges before they could finally flip it from relic to gathering place. Retzer said he “had never dreamed of having an ice cream shop. ” but after years of walking past the abandoned caboose. the project became something he “wanted personally” in his community—something that could “activate the entire area.”.
The caboose sits near Boston’s waterfront. It is part of a stretch that has long attracted walkers and joggers. but for decades the train car remained largely untouched. The building’s history reaches back to the 19th century. when a train car served as a kitchen for dockworkers at the East Boston piers. When shipping shifted to trucking in the 1950s. a similar bright blue caboose was left behind and stayed for years with little change.
In 2021. Retzer approached the City of Boston—owners of the 1940s-era train car—about allowing a business to operate inside the structure. Later that year, he and Kelley won the rights to the space through a public bidding process. Retzer brought Kelley into the project after years of enjoying coffee from her mobile business, Travel Mug Cafe.
They did not anticipate just how complicated the renovation would become. Kelley described the train car as “dilapidated” and covered in graffiti. with bunk beds and the original steel stove still inside. Utility hookups created some of the biggest problems. City blueprints, she said, often inaccurately reported where nearby sewage, electric, and water connections were located. In practice, the closest hookups turned out to be a few blocks away.
Construction also faced seasonal delays. Every winter, the work stopped, and meetings with city officials took place biweekly or monthly.
“It was just a lot of figuring things out as we went,” Kelley said. When challenges kept piling up, she reminded Retzer that The Blue Caboose was becoming “the little engine that could.”
The project became its own kind of slow-burn story. In April 2023. the pair announced it on Instagram. writing. “Our hearts are full to be able to restore a historical piece of Boston and bring a new gathering place to the community.” After that. the community waited—often leaving comments on older posts that asked for updates.
Kelley said the long timeline turned the project into a local legend because residents weren’t sure it would ever actually open. Even with only a day’s notice of the opening on Instagram, the response was immediate. Lines formed down the block at several points, and on the first day alone, the shop sold 350 ice cream cones.
“We opened as fast as we were able to,” Kelley said. She called the opening “overwhelming,” adding that “the whole [first] weekend was very packed.” Retzer said the reaction—seeing how excited people were—was “unbelievable,” and that it felt like the culmination of years of work.
Opening day came after “a lot of sleepless nights” and “a lot of frustrations,” Retzer said. Now, he said he gets to “sit back and celebrate.”
The Blue Caboose serves the products Kelley brought from Travel Mug Cafe, including cold brew, matcha, and iced tea, along with ice cream sundaes and chipwiches. The menu includes ice cream flavors such as black bear, coffee cookies and cream, and salted caramel chocolate pretzel.
Retzer, who works full time in software development and said he self-funded the project, framed the shop’s success in terms of community impact—hoping it will bring more life to the area around the greenway.
Looking ahead, the owners said they hope to host a grand opening with Mayor Michelle Wu in the coming weeks, Kelley said. A larger celebration will likely wait until construction on the surrounding greenway is completed.
City construction plans call for new benches and cafe-style seating, along with a community garden near the caboose. Kelley and Retzer plan to mark that completion with a larger celebration when the caboose reopens next season.
East Boston Eastie The Blue Caboose ice cream coffee Travel Mug Cafe Mary Ellen Welch Greenway Mayor Michelle Wu Boston