In Italy on my honeymoon, I ate gelato every single day. That’s to say, I love the stuff and will go to any lengths to enjoy it.
Fortunately, here in the Bay Area, you don’t have to travel to Italy to have amazing gelato. We have Gio Gelati for that.
This Bay Area gelato place has locations at City Center Bishop Ranch and in the City as well. It’s about as authentic as you can get.
One example? The owners are so committed to authenticity that they actually import their own spoons and cups from Italy to create the exact Italian gelato experience.
Of course, that attention to detail extends to the gelato itself. Gio Gelati uses fresh, seasonal ingredients, which means that its menu of flavors is constantly rotating based on what’s available at local farmers’ markets.
Gio Gelati’s flavors are fresh, tart, and often simple. They don’t go for a lot of gimmicky flavors, preferring those that are based around a single fruit or other ingredient.
Gio Gelati’s core flavors include strawberry, mango, passionfruit, vanilla, pistachio and hazelnut. The vanilla is a rich and creamy classic flavor made with vanilla beans. Raspberry and passionfruit are tart and delicious, an ideal refresher for those swelteringly hot summer days.
Some of Gio Gelati’s other flavors are exotic, not so much for their complexity, but because you rarely see gelato places go to the effort of offering them.
Milk and fig, sour cherry, pistachio, kiwi, blood orange, and even avocado sometimes feature on the rotating menu.
Keeping with Italian tradition, Gio Gelati’s flavors are served in small scoops in a paper cup or artisan cone. I’ve noticed those scoops have gotten a bit more generous over time, especially if you come in with cute kids in tow.
The local chain even recently released a peanut butter flavor for dogs. You probably won’t find that in Italy.
Beyond the small concessions to the Bay Area market, Gio Gelati’s flavors are as authentic as they get. Again, they’re not overly sweet (mango is a great option for kids who like much sweeter flavors) and feel very reflective of what’s available locally and seasonally.
With that seasonality comes relatively high prices. Going to Gio Gelati is going to cost you a lot more than going to Baskin-Robbins.
That said, it’s going to cost you a lot less than a plane ticket to Italy! And if you want really authentic gelato in the Bay Area, that’s one of your only other options. Gio Gelati genuinely does it right, spoons and all.
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