Preview of Tour del Gelato Feature

Update June 2010: in June 2009 I switched to eating gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free refined-sugar-free and nearly vegan, so the Tour del Gelato posts predate the switch – and  yes, gelato is usually naturally gluten-free, though of course not usually vegan.

 I recently rediscovered Ms. Adventures in Italy, a lovely travel and food blog. Ms Adventures also hosts an awesome concept — the Tour del Gelato. Mission: discovering the world’s best gelato.

Now that I no longer write just about beauty products, I can write fun stuff like a a gelato review (not that beauty is not fun). And of course, be part of the Tour del Gelato fun.

The latest BIG thing in New York ice cream is Grom. I can’t seem to go a week in New York without Grom coming up. Grom is relatively new — Federico Grom and his friend Guido Martinetti opened the first one in 2003 in Turin. And judging from the many locations opened since, Grom has really taken off!

Ms Adventures herself reviewed Grom – Turin and Grom – Florence, David Leibowitz (author of The Perfect Scoop, aka a go-to ice cream cookbook) has not one but two very positive reviews on Grom’s opening in Paris last month.

Somehow, I never made it to Grom in the last year. So I decided that since My Melange had already reviewed Grom on Bleeker Street for Tour de Gelato, I would review the Upper West Side Grom.

So off I went on Tuesday night — to 2165 Broadway, next door to a Lush store also located at 2165 Broadway. No, they are not in the same store, but yes the two storefronts coexist exactly next-door to each other.

Problem #1 — I managed to forget the digital camera.

Problem #2 — Grom-UWS smells like a Lush store.

And that is a BIG problem. The gelato is wonderful, but being surrounded by the strong smell of bath and body products (and you know how strong Lush stores smell) just killed it for me. And I love bath and body products.

So, I couldn’t review Grom-UWS when I couldn’t remember the gelato as much as the Lush store’s intrusion. I don’t think it’s worth paying for fancy Grom gelato at that location — you are better off going to Bleecker Street Grom if you want to sit down to enjoy your gelato. As for getting the gelato to-go — well, when you enter the store, it already smells like Lush.Plus, I had no pictures and I was already thinking there were plenty of Grom reviews out there, and I should just be referring you all to all these fabulous blogs.
Don’t worry though — I will be back soon with a real Tour del Gelato post of my own. In the meantime, Happy Friday and check out all the links in this post!