Many of us who have foolishly vacationed/backpacked in Italy during the summer months (hottest time of the year) remember with delicious distinction what a refreshing feeling a scoop or two of your favorite gelato flavor brought to a squelching summer day. There must have been many who made this pilgrimage across the pond as there has been a gelato revolution in the US for the past couple of years.
Rounding the corners of various downtown malls in the country we are all of a sudden struck with deja vu: could it be we are back at the Piazza San Marco? No you definitely are not, but you might have found yourself at one of Charlottesville’s many gelato outlets. Walking in these mostly modern establishments, you are greeted by pans, not tubs of Italian ice cream: gelato. But not all gelati are made equal. Cville Magazine attempts to create this distinction with the Best of C-VILLE award, but I think they have it wrong.
Splendora’s: Not So Splendid
The downtown mall’s Splendora’s Gelato Cafe is typical of the latest gelato craze. Modern/European decor splash the interior and your eyes are tickled pink with 24-36 flavors at a time. With their gelato, sorbet, and sugar-free offerings they can appease any frozen dessert nut, except me.
Don’t let the fancy colors fool you, take a closer look at the gelato, notice the shiny glossy exterior? This is the first sign of sub-par ice cream/gelato. You will see the same physical characteristics at Cold Stone Creamery . Not wanting to judge a book by its cover (but that method is usually right if you ask me…), I tasted two flavors: Rose, and Nutty Chocolate Hazelnut (or something to that effect). The Rose tasted very un-natural, definitely artificial. As I picked up my tiny spoon to taste the Hazelnut, I was stared back by a glossy exterior, and cake-batter looking interior.
Perhaps the gelato chef here missed his/her flight to Italy? This is definitely not gelato. Gelato should be creamy in texture, and have the appearance of being sticky as it is scraped (not scooped like traditional ice cream) into your funny little European cup. The taste should be smooth and not overpowering. The aftertaste should leave your tongue with a lingering feeling of teeny-tiny roasted hazelnuts playing in the back of your mouth, or rose petals resting on your tongue.
While I will praise Splendora’s with embracing the challenge of attempting to make their own gelato, they unfortunately miss the mark. If you really want to hit the bulls-eye in Charlottesville, head over to the Main Street Market’s Milano Espresso Gelato.
Experience “La Dolce Vita” in Milano
Milano is located inside Verity-Blue, and is owned by Verity’s owners Mark and Victoria Cave. Those two have most likely been to Italy, as they appreciate the art of gelato so much that they purchase it from a high-quality producer based out of Michigan. There is always some pride you give up by not doing things yourself, but if you cant do them well at all *ahem*, then you should outsource, and Milano does it VERY WELL.
Look at their gelato: smooth, velvety, and oh so creamy. Order a scoop or two, and notice how the gelato enters the cup and lingers cautiously on the scraper. Take a bit, or two, notice the smoothness? That is the same feeling you remember from those sweltering summer days in Italy. So they do not have 24-36 flavors, but they do have quality, and in gelato, quality always wins.
Lately they have been sporting some crazy flavors, a sign that even traditional Italian tastes are changing, but give them a try, if anything they will give you bragging rights to all of your friends.
So enjoy the beginning of what looks like a beautiful Charlottesville summer, and remember that not all gelato is made the same. Choices create competition, and on this one, cVillain deems Milano the winner.
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Tagged as: Charlottesville, Dessert, Gelato, Ice Cream, Rants, Restaurants, Reviews, sweet
My goodness, what are your qualifications, dear blogger? Where and how often have you had gelato before? My Italian sister-in-law (grew up near Lake Cumo) has declared Spendora’s the more authentic gelato, though admittedly she only had the gianduia at each when she visited.
I feel as though each of the writers on cVillain should have names (real or fake) so that we can figure out who is behind some of the ridiculous restaurant/food reviews and ignore their entries in the future.
Silly me! You people DO have names! Okay, there’s Thor, Lilith, and cocoNut. Anyone else we should be aware of? Is that it for the gossip trust? I’m kind of let down. I thought there’d be a big team of people.
Thanks for the negative feedback! We really appreciate it. BUT, as you probably know, De gustibus non est disputandum. We may not be the authority on food, but we are sick of bad reviews and Splendora is certainly NOT the best Gelato in town. Period. If you think otherwise, we will gladly post your review.
Do you mean Lake Como? You talking about a porn lake?
I have been a gelato aficionado and foodie since birth. What credentials do I have? I have been around the gourmet life since I could eat on the eating/cooking/prep/presentation side.
I make it a point to sample gelato in every country I travel to. Gelato has changed over the years…my memories of the best gelato are from my youth in Florence. Travelling in Italy today, the majority of gelateria’s sell mass produced items. You will see this more common in tourist-rich areas. The true gelato artists are still around but harder to find, and oh worth the search!
So do I know what I am talking about? Yes I do. Is it weird that Milano’s gelato is actually a quality product considering anyone else could go to the same producer and order the same product? Yes it is. But Milano seems to choose its suppliers with the utmost scrutiny.
If there is something better than Milano, it should not be Splendora’s. I would be up for trying new places! Make some recommendations please!
It wasn’t meant to be a negative review. I just think that without any background, it’s hard to take a review seriously. With the above comment, we have a little background on cocoNut. Prior to that, some dude who went on vacation to Italy was rambling about gelato. Now, we now that s/he has traveled to multiple countries and sampled gelato in various places.
Team blogs have awesome potential, especially if the parts of the team have distinct personalities. You don’t have to share who you are or give imformation that would lead people to guess. Revealing a little more about your character might make people more interested in what you have to say.
Well, between the frequent writers, we do have distinct personalities, but I definitely wouldn’t call this a team blog. Perhaps I would go as far as saying we are the core, but this is totally a community portal. If you have something to say, sign in and post! We welcome full interaction within the community.
We will work on backgrounds too.
Well, my unsophisticated palette and I enjoyed this write-up. Thanks for the good work!
Cheers, glad you enjoyed it Chris.
I happen to enjoy an occasional Splendora cup, but have never been to Milano - I’ll have to give it a shot. Granted, I am not a fan of the dairy gelati, so I hope there’s something more in the fruit category. BTW, CocoNUT, if you’ve never had fresh fig gelato, you’ve got to try some. I’ll have to dust off my ice cream maker.
Splendora’s is the best place EVER. Their chocolate gelato somehow tastes more like chocolate than a 70% cacoa belgium bar. The true way to see how superior they are to Milano’s is the taste the pistachio, as no gelato place worth it’s dinky plastic sppons should be in business if they can’t blow your mind with their pistachio.
Lys - I totally disagree. Splendora’s is so overrated. The flavors are weak, they keep it too cold or let ice form or something, and plastic spoons have nothing to do with it. You can get a silver spoon at Milano if you want…
So Pistachio is the challenge? POOF. I think thats one of my fav’s at Milanos. Here is a list of keys to great pistachio ice cream:
-cannot be green…it just doesnt happen naturally…most nuts give off a milk/off-brown color
-use real GOOD quality pistachio nuts…possibly roasted
-not too sweet…the sexiness of good gelati is to let the flavors jump off the spoon, not down your throat
That being said, the source of Milano’s gelato of the Pistachio persuasion is one of the best I have had and is usually a sure bet if you are a Milano Virgin (is that even possible?).
Granted, they might have some strange flavors on occassion *ahem, white chocolate roasted garlic*, but those can actually be good…just don’t expect to get very far with your date!
I whole heartedly agree with this article. I often tell people if you quality gelato - you go to milano. And if you want good flavor options - you go to milano then too. I am a great life-long lover of all things in the ice cream - sorbet - gelato - italian ice - soft serve - etc. categories, and I am consistently pleasantly overwhelmed by how truly superb the gelato is at Milano. I daresay better than the 10+ gelato places I went on my most recent trip to Italy. The raspberry flavors are my favorites - there are actual little berries preserved in these heavenly concoctions. Raspberry, white chocolate raspberry, and raspberry tiramisu - ahhh, need to go there now!!!!
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Sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction with our gelato. People’s taste in gelati usually comes down to personal preference, and there isn’t much arguing with that.
Just for the record, however, the ingredients for the rose gelato, apart from the essential white base ingredients (milk, cream, nonfat milk powder, sugar, and dextrose) are…rose petals and some citric acid.
The glossy appearance of the Gianduia is a common problem with all gelato when it has been exposed to air for a time, and it is a common problem with gelato that does not have a lot of stabilizer in it. In order to make gelato capable of enduring the many changes in temperature that occur during shipping, you have to put a lot of stablilizer in it, which also helps prevent it from becoming glossy. The ‘cake batter’ looking interior stems from the same thing, and the fact that there is a ton of chocolate and hazelnut paste in that recipe, making it relatively dry compared to many other flavors. We think the intense flavor makes the tradeoff worthwhile.
We stick with very traditional Italian gelato/sorbetto recipes, keep the ingredient list very “clean” and high quality, and we work very hard to constantly refine our recipes and invent new flavors.
Sorry you had a bad experience in our store. I encourage you to give us a second chance.
Kiki LOVES Splendoras, and you Fax! MUAH!
cocoNUT,
I think you may have gotten your venues confused…I’ve been to both Cafe Milano and Splendoras over the last year or so when I’m in town (I’ve also been to that gas station on pantops that sells gelato..?!?), and had exactly the opposite experience…making me think you have described each one perfectly…but backwards. Every time I go into Milano (very good coffee, btw), the gelato looks like it has been there for a very long time. I tried some the first couple of times I went in, but no more. Old looking, glossy, really gooey, and not pleasant. The pistachio has something else in it other than pistachios. My partner tried one of the sorbets (raspberry?) and tossed it after a couple of bites. He thought it tasted like there were freeze-dried berry bits in it. ONce they had the remains of one flavor plopped into the back of a pan with another flavor.
The gelato at Splendoras however is the closest thing I’ve had in the states to what I get in Naples. It is absolutely top notch, and the four or five times I’ve been in the store, all the gelato looked beautiful.
So, you need to recheck your notes because I think you got the two confused.
Anton, I believe that cocoNut has it right.
(BTW, the chances are better that you are confused as an only occasional visitor to Charlottesville and not a true C-villain. But thank you for playing.)
Milano is excellent!
I don’t spend as much of my time here (Charlottesville) as I would like, that is true - so I may not be a True C-villain. I am not, however, confused. I’ve been back to both places (Milano and Splendora’s) on this last visit, and I hold to my opinion. The gelati and sorbetti on display at Milano look old, and the sorbetti in particular have a distinctly unpleasant gloppy characteristic that I never see in Italy. If it is true that M buys the gelato from somewhere else, perhaps that is part of the problem. Real gelato is too fragile to endure shipping well.
Perhaps if you have the chance to travel abroad sometime and get out of Charlottesville you will develop a better sense of how good real gelato can be. Then you will be able to better judge what you are seeing here in town. For now though, coconut and emu, you have lost your way…
Anton - we can run a poll if you would like and let the community decide. I also agree with cocoNUT and emu.. Milano, despite the fact their gelato comes from Michigan, has the best gelato in town
Splendoras: the cold stuff has never touched plastic, stainless only. Their health dept. reports are usually the best in town (not always). No grill helps with that of course. The hot stuff: the coffee is great, esp. if you like Italian coffee (which is usually not pure arabica). Some of the baristas there are real perfectionists with the timer and will remake it if they feel it’s not going to be perfect.
Milano: the cold stuff: if it is from Michigan, well who knows. It is cold there. The hot stuff: the place offers three kinds of espresso, one at a premium! All are Italian.
Shen. Joes: look, this is really a coffee review as far I’m concerned. You can get 20 kinds of coffee individually brewed by the cup, single source & blended. That crazy.
[…] Splendora’s: so many flavors, so little time…there has to be a limit here! […]
[…] Dessert and Best Frozen Treat” award on numerous occasions, but a lot of readers on this site disagreed with that award and for good reason. I heard that Splendora was somehow “back” and […]