It’s summer, and that means one thing – ice cream! No matter how old you are, you succumb to the delights of it once the hot air moves in. But ice cream has come a long way since we ordered a vanilla pop or a chocolate cone from the neighborhood truck rolling past our door.
Our worldly travels or restaurant forays have taken us far afield when it comes to flavors, types and creations that we now eat. Do we want the full 35% butterfat of the denser, richer, creamier premium American ice creams or have we gotten used to the smoothness of Italian gelati or the icy freshness of a French sorbet?
Gelati is made smooth with milk and/or cream and in the best of all worlds, fresh real fruit. Each store, restaurant or bakery has its own secret recipe of combinations using (hopefully) fresh fruit and not powdered flavors or frozen fruit. Sorbet (or granita in Italian lingo) is made with only water and fresh fruit.
Flavors must blow our minds away. Chocolate is no longer good enough, it has to go beyond to hazelnut chocolate or chocolate chocolate fudge. Fruits have evolved from the fridge, like lemons and oranges, to the wilds of cassis, papaya, mango and even lichee.
Head to some of these fun ice cream parlours around town, where these flavors are layered into parfait glasses with some extra fruit syrups, whip cream or nuts, and they can be frozen into cake creations or actual fruit shapes. And yes, you can still get a plain vanilla cone or chocolate cup.
Gelateria La Bella Italiana is the cafe of the wholesaler Ital Gelati (found in supermarket freezers) and they create about 34 flavours of gelati (1/2 litre to go $5) in mocha almond, noisette, baci, granita, mango, raspberry, watermelon, orange, spumoni, pistachio or sorbets ($5).
Incredible creations such as gelati forma di frutti (in the shape of apples, bananas, oranges) or fruits that have been “emptied” and refilled with sherbets: melon, lemon, pineapple, orange, papaya, raspberry and coconut are here along with coppa di gelato, which is ice cream mixed with fresh fruit topped with whipped cream or coppa fragola, a strawberry dessert with 3 scoops of vanilla gelato, strawberry syrup and fresh strawberries.
Or you can ask for a tartuffe, a ball of vanilla covered by chocolate, or share a chocolate hazelnut cassata log or gelato cake in mocha almond fudge, pralines and cream and chocolate mousse.
Location: 5884 Jean Talon St. East at Valdombre St., St. Leonard
Phone: 514-254-4811
Hours: Daily 8am-midnight
Other location (it’s the office, but you can buy for the freezer): 8390 le Creusot, St-Leonard, open Mon-Sat 9-5.
Save yourself a trip to Italy if you yearn for real gelati. Roberto’s Restaurant and Gelateria is a pretty ice cream parlour which entices you with flavours: zuppa inglese, baci, amaretto, noisette, tiramisu, mint, chocolate, coffee and pistachio.
If you want some fruit sorbet, don’t worry – there’s watermelon, blueberry, lemon and more. The menu goes on to spumoni, mokador (coffee, nougat, hazelnut), sundaes, fantasie di fruita, gelati with liquors, igloos and sliced cake creations.
2221 Belanger St. East at Sagard St.
Phone: 514- 374-9844
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
La Brioche Lyonnaise, The French are known for their perfection of ice known as sorbet, and this establishment is known for its preparation of that treat in many natural fruit flavours (pear, mango, raspberry, lemon, strawberry, black currant). People have been coming for years to taste them, as well as the homemade ice creams ($3 scoop in cone or cup). It’s a cafe too.
Location: 1593 St-Denis at de Maisonneuve.
Phone: (514) 842-7017.
Hours: Daily 7:30am-midnight
www.labriochelyonnaise.com
At Pile ou Glace, you can find out how Italian gelati blends the richness of ice cream with the iciness of sorbet to give you a refreshing summer treat. You can choose from a daily assortment of 18 gelati flavours (could be cappuccino, nougat, chocolate, roasted almond, hazelnut, amaretto, lemon, caramel, banana, coconut or even vanilla), or 4 sorbets (always lemon granita and perhaps dark chocolate, grapefruit, orange, mango). You can eat it outside or take it to go
Location: 7084 boul. St-Laurent at Jean-Talon
Phone 514-277-3301
Hours: Daily 11-11
