UNGRAND OPENING

Emack & Bolio’s Ice Cream & Yogurt opened in Porter Square today, unfortunately a day of unseasonable cold and aggressive rain that had even the hardy ice cream eaters of New England staying away in droves.

You couldn’t tell that immediately from the crowd inside the tiny shop, though, which was packed with people, more than a dozen between workers and visitors — but these weren’t buyers, as they left with no ice cream after several minutes of being warm and dry. Nor was there a constant stream of buyers from the Healthworks gym for women, which is, amusingly enough, just next door. You can be out one business and in the next within three seconds.

When the crowd left, a sole buyer replaced it. A friendly worker at Emack & Bolio’s agreed it was slow that day, certainly because of the cold and the newness of the store, and that the company expected Porter Square to be a high-volume site. Not high-volume enough for seven workers behind the counter, though, many of whom were there for training. The store’s actually supposed to need up to four workers, which is still a lot.

But it’s open weekdays from 11 a.m. until 11:30 p.m. and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Which is pretty grand.