A full pumpkin lineup at Dunkin’, Oktoberfest on the shelf downstairs, and a building that’s filling back up.
Fall in downtown Springfield does not announce itself with a calendar date. It announces itself with inventory. Somewhere in the last two weeks of August the cups change color, the taps change, and the season is here whether the thermometer agrees or not.
It also announces itself in the lobby.
“You can feel the building change in the fall,” says Sara Smith, Building Manager at Tower Square. “The lobby gets busier, tenants are back from vacation, and people start planning again. Having places downstairs where someone can grab a coffee on the way in or pick up something for a client dinner on the way out — that convenience is a big part of what makes Tower Square work for the people who spend their days here.”
Dunkin’: the full lineup, already
The Tower Square Dunkin’ is carrying the entire pumpkin roster, and “entire” is the operative word.
On the beverage side: the Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte, the Pumpkin Cloud Dunkalatte, the Pumpkin Patch Cloud Latte, the Pumpkin Pie Coffee Chiller, and the Nutty Pumpkin Protein Latte. That last one summarizes where the category has landed — pie flavor and a protein macro in the same cup, either the end of civilization or a very reasonable 3 p.m. decision, depending on your week.
The bakery case holds the classics that predate all of it: the Pumpkin Donut, the Pumpkin Muffin, and Pumpkin Munchkins. The Munchkins remain the correct move for a conference room. A dozen will do more for a Tuesday afternoon meeting than anything on the agenda.
“Pumpkin season is our busiest stretch of the year, and in this building you can watch it happen by the hour,” says Hayry Dejesus, Manager of the Tower Square Dunkin’. “The morning rush comes down from the offices, then there’s a second wave in the afternoon that’s almost all pumpkin. People know exactly what they want by the time they reach the counter.”
If you’re ordering for a floor rather than for yourself, call ahead — box service moves faster than a line of eleven people deciding between the Chiller and the Dunkalatte.
Downstairs: the seasonal hunt
Carlo Bonavita at The Springfield Wine & Spirits Exchange treats fall as a buying season rather than a shelf-tag exercise. He has brought in full lines of Oktoberfest and pumpkin beers — märzen-style lagers, amber and malt-forward, built to be drunk by the liter beside a plate of anything roasted.
The pumpkin lineup includes this publisher’s declared favorite, Southern Tier’s PumpKing. At 8.6 percent it commits fully, finishes closer to dessert than beer, and apologizes for none of it. Pumpkin beers tend to divide a room. PumpKing is the one that converts people.
On the wine shelf, three fall selections worth the trip: the Zuccardi 2016 Finca Piedra Infinita, a single-vineyard Uco Valley Malbec that earned 100 points from Wine Advocate and sold out almost immediately; the Groth 2022 Oakville Cabernet, silky rather than heavy and priced like a value, which is unusual language for an Oakville Cab; and the António Bernardino Paulo da Silva Casal da Azenha 2015, a “baby Colares” grown in Atlantic sand near Sintra that almost nobody imports.
Same advice for the beer and the wine: ask Carlo what came in this week. The good material is not always the material facing out.
