Strong words! But of course difficult to taste enough gelato to make that claim…
I moved back to Nyc two years ago, not too far from il laboratorio, and I love ice cream. So we’ve been there several times and it is certainly tasty, with lots of flavors. But I hear many people saying it’s just a pale shadow of what it used to be. Certainly seemed to me like they were trading more on the range of flavors than the quality.
I agree that in general, US ice cream leans too heavily on adulterants, preservatives and stabilizers. I like the fresh stuff that spoils in 3 days. But there are good small producers working very seriously. In our old Chapel Hill NC farmers market we had some incredible small ice cream makers.
first couple years post pandemic, agree that Il Laboritorio had fallen off, so wound up at GROM. But this July, stopped back and was blown away by the intensity of some of the summer fruit flavors. Cherry was off the charts, best I ever had. Peach gelato incredible as well as some of their sorbets, and their dark chocolate always amazed.
Tasted gelato extensively in Florence, Rome and Naples on a couple trips the last two years so have a good frame of reference. (But not extensively in the US).,
Will have to try again when we get back to Nyc later this month. I also used to like Grom, but seems like they closed a lot of their shops in Manhattan. Have you been to Figo? We went once or twice and it was promising.
Frankly, I’ve almost given up on getting high quality fresh ice cream like in Europe, so when I’m in Nyc we mostly just buy pints for the apartment from the various artisanal producers that are everywhere these days. Because it seems like all the ice cream shops are essentially selling scoops of stuff that was made elsewhere a while ago anyway, so it’s the same stuff that could be in supermarkets.
Some of my favorite NYC ice cream is at Superiority Burger. It gets kind of overlooked being that the name is about burgers. The owner, Brooks, was the pastry chef at Del Posto so he knows gelato.
This would be another good stop. Lovely walking around the East Village. Superiority Burger is a short jaunt from Tokio 7 that Robert mentioned and you could enjoy the ice cream in Tompkins Sq Park and continue strolling about the East Village and exploring the shops and community gardens. I imagine there is a map somewhere of the gardens.
Although I think Parcelle is a better bet, Attaboy is a 9 minute walk. It’s a speakeasy with terrific cocktails. There’s no signage. I feel like there’s a neon sign in the window that says Tailor and there’s a doorbell way higher on the doorframe than normal. There will probably be folks in line so you will get an idea of where it is. It’s an absolute dump and yet tremendously fun. Your daughter will think you’re much cooler than she does now.
PS. If you take all of our advice for tonight, you’re gonna have a heck of a hangover.
