Brief ice cream round-up: Coolhaus and L'Arte del Gelato

It's after Memorial Day, which means we are in full-on ice-cream-every-day-until-October mode. A quick recap of some of the ice creams we're eating:

First, Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches.



This particular one is dirty mint chip ice cream between double chocolate cookies. Coolhaus is a food truck, and it has more adventurous flavors you can try (like Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch cookies, and Fried Chicken and Waffles ice cream). And they have more chocolatey flavor combinations, as we have eaten previously. But this one hit the spot. Fresh mint, chewy chocolatey cookie, and I am happy.

Next up, L'Arte Del Gelato. Continuing in my mint-and-chocolate flavor combination craze, this is a scoop of mint chip gelato with a scoop of Valrhona chocolate gelato. I got it from the L'Arte del Gelato stand on the Highline.



It's okay. I mean, if you're nearby, and you're in the mood for gelato, definitely eat it. But I have to agree with David: I've eaten L'Arte del Gelato a number of times and have never been blown away. There is gelato in this city that I would journey to eat--L'Albero dei Gelati, for example--but L'Arte del Gelato is not one of them.

BOTTOM LINE: Thank goodness it is ice cream season at last. I mean, I was eating a lot of ice cream even when it wasn't ice cream season. But at least now that feels more culturally desirable.

L'Albero dei Gelati

When I first heard there was going to be a new gelato place in Park Slope, I have to admit I was dubious. I mean, this is Park Slope in the year 2013. It's not a neighborhood lacking for gelato. This new place was opening within a few blocks of two of my most beloved dessert venues, Culture and Caramello, so I just didn't see what new things it could bring to the table. The dessert table, so to speak.

But now that I have been to L'Albero dei Gelati, I will never doubt again. This place is awesome. It's owned and run by a couple from Milan; this is their first outpost in the United States. The gelato here is top-notch. Most of the media surrounding this place has focused on the savory gelato flavors that they offer, but let's get serious: all that matters is the quality of their chocolate gelato, which is superb. The texture is exactly right.



And they don't just sell gelato in this place. They have actual food, like classy, delightful meat and cheese platters. Obviously I didn't get those, because I was focusing my appetite on chocolate. But they also offer delicious pastries, cookies, cakes, and mousse. Here, for example, is a crispy nut cookie sandwich with a thick, nutella-like filling.



This thing is also awesome, and it only cost $2.25! There was a large selection of similarly delicious looking basked goods that I need to go back to try. Oh, and I need to go back soon because there is a beautiful backyard garden that I need to sit in.



BOTTOM LINE: A neighborhood can never have too many good chocolate options.

Talenti gelato

What is the best pre-packaged ice cream available in supermarkets? I have given this matter a lot of careful consideration, and I have reached an answer: Talenti Gelato.



Their double dark chocolate is so goddamn good. Here's how their promotional copy describes it: "Semisweet Belgian Callebaut chocolate morsels are united with dark chocolate gelato and a splash of vermouth."

It's shocking to me that Talenti comes pre-packed, because it's creamier, richer, smoother, and more flavorful than many of the handmade ice creams I've tasted. What is less shocking is its high pricepoint. I got a pint for $6.99 last week, but previously I've paid close to $10 for it. What can I say? It's worth it.

BOTTOM LINE: In my opinion, the best grocery store ice cream on the market.

Ciao Bella

There are a lot of tiers of ice cream/gelato, at least in terms of pretentiousness.  Ciao Bella is not at the top tier, probably because it is not sufficiently "artisanal."  It is a chain.  And it is sold (*gasp*) at grocery stores

But if you stop by the convenient Ciao Bella counter in the Grand Central Dining Concourse, there is really no way to distinguish its beautiful offerings from those of the more artisanal gelaterias.  And tastewise, I think Ciao Bella holds its own with just about anything, easily outpacing any other store-bought offerings.

My favorite item at Ciao Bella is the dark chocolate sorbet.  You need to be a sorbet person.  Many aren't.  But the real advantage is that it's just so much more chocolatey than gelato or ice cream, because those necessarily uses dairy.

On my most recent trip, I was thirsty, so I decided to mix it up and got an iced green tea float with the chocolate sorbet.  I made an amateur mistake, though, in getting the medium rather than the small.  They put in the same one scoop of sorbet with extra green tea, diluting the chocolatiness.  However, by the time I got to the more chocolatey bottom, the drink was absolutely hitting the spot.

My friend got a cup of cookies and cream and mocha gelatos.  Neither is really my style for obvious reasons, but both involved chocolate and were good versions of what they are.

Bottom Line: Easily the best stuff you can buy in a store and conveniently located in Grand Central

Fresco Hot Chocolate

Fresco has hot chocolate!  And hot caramel, and hot lemon poppy, and hot any flavor you want!  They simply melt their gelato in a machine, with milk added, and you get something amazing:

I made the incredibly smart decision to throw a scoop of the chocolate gelato back into the melted gelato-based hot chocolate.  This is what I would call an intermediate-to-advanced level chocolate lover move.  Try it elsewhere.  It rarely disappoints.

Bottom Line:  I would never have thought to do it, but I guess I am unsurprised that amazing gelato can easily be turned into amazing hot chocolate

Grom

After an evening of dancing to satanic ska on a boat, sometimes you just need to cool down with a nice cone of chocolate gelato.

Until my recent discovery of Fresco, Grom was easily my favorite gelato shop in the city, and it still might be, if only for the extradark chocolate sorbet.  Grom is a chain that comes from Italy, but my friends who spent time in Italy before Grom came to NYC reported living off the stuff there.  And for good reason.  While even the chocolate sorbet is not vegan (they started adding a small amount of egg for unclear reasons -- I couldn't tell the difference after the change), the taste is just unbeatable.

I often say that the point of dessert is to take the taste of chocolate and put it into different textures.  No one in the city understands this better than Grom.  This sorbet really does taste like a dark chocolate bar (~70-80% -- not too sweet) in ice cream form.  And just to remind you of it, they throw in dark chocolate chips.  Really superb.

Grom also has a dark chocolate gelato (Venezuelan origin as opposed to the extradark's Colombian origin).  It's good enough to be one of the best in the city, but I never wind up getting it, because the extradark is there.

The other notable item at Grom is the hot chocolate.  It is thick.  Unbelievably thick.  Basically melted chocolate -- the same Venezuelan chocolate as in the gelato.  Some of the best hot chocolate in the city, in my opinion.  But better yet is throwing a scoop of the extradark chocolate sorbet in the hot chocolate.  It's an amazing dessert for any weather situation.

Despite all this, though, my standard order is still usually just the extradark chocolate sorbet, straight up.

Bottom Line: The best taste in the world (a dark chocolate bar) in one of the best textures in the world (ice cream).  Unbeatable.

L'Arte Del Gelato

L'Arte Del Gelato has the reputation for being one of the best gelaterias in New York.  This may well be the case, but I have always been unimpressed by their chocolate offerings.

I was walking by the other day with a friend, and she wanted some pumpkin gelato.  I decided to give the place another try, so we split a cup down the middle with pumpkin and dark chocolate sorbet.  My prior opinions were confirmed.

Can't complain about the appearance -- it certainly looks chocolatey

It's not that the sorbet is bad.  It's just that it faces an uphill battle of a super chocolatey appearance and a stellar reputation.  But when you bite in, it's merely good.  I've had the milk chocolate gelato version as well, and it's the same.  This sorbet not super sweet, which is good, but usually that would mean that the sugar is replaced by more chocolate.  Here, the taste is, as usual, not chocolatey enough.  It's as if they replaced the sugar from most sorbets with extra ice.

Bottom Line:  Good quality ingredients, but just not tasty enough.

Fresco has chocolate sorbet!

And it is amazing.  It tastes like a fresher, better version of Ciao Bella's excellent dark chocolate sorbet.  Good news for all you vegans and lactose intolerants out there.  Also for those of us who are such chocolate purists that we think that any ingredient that isn't chocolate is just getting in the way.  And having tried it, the chocolate gelato/chocolate sorbet combo is truly exquisite.

They only had it in the back room today, but they assured me it will be rolling out right away.

Fresco

Fresco is a new gelateria in the East Village.  It opened maybe a month and a half ago, and I have been approximately twelve thousand times since discovering it a month ago.  (In fact, I was next door at Veselka with Leila's friend Emily, and she insisted we try out this new place.  I, not having heard anything about it, was confident I would not be impressed by yet another gelateria.  Emily and I dragged Leila back there less than a week later.  I would say that we dragged her by force, because we would have if necessary, but trying to convince Leila to eat gelato does not require much force.)

Fresco is a beautiful store.  It is furnished with benches made from reclaimed Coney Island wood.  And it is staffed by some of the nicest people I've encountered in all my abundant chocolate hunting.

Fresco serves many flavors of gelato.  Many of those flavors are very good.  But we don't really care about that here.  Because there is only one flavor that matters.

The top left will be our subject for discussion today.

The chocolate gelato at Fresco is certainly among the very best in New York City.  But even more impressively, it is probably the most unique totally different from any chocolate gelato I have ever tasted (since CMS, Fowler, and Strunk & White all seem to agree on this rule, I will comply, though the rule is complete nonsense -- thanks [but no thanks] to Josh, another impressive chocolate lover amongst us).  The gelato base is made with cocoa powder, and then the cold base is mixed with hot, melted chocolate.  If you've ever tasted iced hot chocolate (for example, at Chocolate Bar), you know that some very small bits of chocolate sort of separate out in the drink, making the texture somewhat inconsistent.  The same happens here, with astonishingly pleasing results.  The gelato develops a fascinating chew and a great chocolate taste.

In addition to gelato (and sorbet), Fresco has some decent chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip, and other sorts of cookies (not made in-house), croissants (from the excellent Ceci Cela), coffee, and more.  They used to have some pretty-good-but-not-quite-worth-the-money vegan cake-like things (including a chocolate one), but they sold out of them.  I think they said they would be reappearing.  But if you are reading this blog, you probably already know what to do here.

Bottom Line: Eat chocolate gelato at Fresco every day of your life.