After 5: On Ice & Cream

There is a new dessert in town. No, wait, make that multiple new desserts. And, in spite of the fact that they’re all frozen, they are doing what they can to heat up the competition for our attention.

Let’s take them one by one. That’s what we did, on our frozen treats tasting tour.

Gelato & Sorbet/Sorbetto
Walking into downtown’s Bistro Market was like we had died and gone to Whole Foods. Specialty items, an array of fresh produce and hot food were laid out in front of us. But what drew our attention first? The little corner with the gelato on display.

The Bistro, in the former Wheeler’s Furniture building, features 18 rotating flavors, including white chocolate, coffee, N.Y. cheesecake, cinnamon vanilla and amarena cherry. Gelato purists won’t be interested in mix-ins, but they’re available for an up-charge. The Bistro also offers sorbets.

We’ve tasted gelato from both coasts and as authentically far away as Florence, Italy. In Springfield, it’s $2.49 for a medium cup or in a waffle cone, and the most popular flavors are limoncello and panna cotta. Springfield is suddenly right on trend.

Next up was Gelato Mio, located across from Trolley’s on Park Central East. It’s another downtown treasure boasting all-natural ingredients by transplants from Latin America who understand what gourmet Italian ice cream really does to the soul.

Gelato Mio offers 600 flavors, 24 at a time. It sells a lot of bubblegum-flavored gelato to kids, but most common is chocolate mint, Mexican vanilla and cappuccino dark chocolate swirl. Add coffee for a “gelato-cinno.”

Gelato Mio also offers sorbetto (similar to sorbet but without cream and usually with more fruit) in fresh mango and Champagne raspberry flavors. Two scoops of either variety runs $3.89.

The Bistro and Gelato Mio are both inviting and allow plenty of experimentation and tasting. But when it comes down to flavor, Gelato Mio gets our vote. It’s more natural, with a slightly milder flavor that closely matches our recent tastings in Greenwich Village, N.Y. The Bistro gelato was a little more strident in its flavors, losing the mild creaminess that we found at Gelato Mio.

Frozen Yogurt
We tried Fria not once but twice. Located next to the Heer’s building on Park Central West, Fria is the latest to join the frozen delights party.

There aren’t a lot of flavor choices here, and on one of our visits some of the machines were frozen and not properly producing the yogurt – which we’re chalking up to new machines and a young business.

But the flavors we tried were worth talking about. The peach and the dulce de leche were probably most memorable, but cake batter, especially with a bit of Heath bar thrown in, takes the, um, cake. Lighter than typical ice cream, and with all the benefits of real yogurt, we almost ate this without guilt.

Points to Fria for using real yogurt with live cultures, and more points for being downtown. At 39 cents an ounce, an average cup will run about $3.50.

Then, there is Orange Leaf. If you haven’t heard of it, you might need to make more friends, because this is one of the more talked about places in Springfield. It’s located at Fremont Avenue and Republic Road and is the California self-serve yogurt stand come to life.

On our visit, Orange Leaf had some pretty long lines, and about a dozen people we knew were among them. Here, the frozen treat is 33 cents per ounce, and the colors are bright.

There are 16 flavors on display, with people ready to suggest combinations such as pomegranate and lemon, or chocolate and peanut butter. The mix-ins were fresh, too, with big, plump blackberries, nuts, cherries, malt balls and chunks of candy bars. An average cup runs close to the $3.50 mark, although we got squirts of four flavors for just a little more than $2.50.

Both offer the fun of do-it-yourself, individualized toppings, the health benefits of yogurt and all the satisfaction of ice cream. Just follow the steps Orange Leaf has spelled out: Grab a cup, pull the lever, add toppings, weigh and pay.

Paul K. Logsdon is director of public relations and publications for Evangel University, and Kay Logsdon is director of the Food Channel for Noble. They have written restaurant reviews for 25 years.[[In-content Ad]]