The Great Gelati War

Hi friends!

It's been a while since I've posted. My apologies! I've been really busy with work and attempting to make new friends.  I guess these things happen...

However, I was thinking of a topic that I couldn't wait to write about, so I'm giving myself 45 minutes before work to do it! That should be enough.  If it's not, well, I'll come back to this post and edit it so it's better.

I wanted to talk about Gelati in Winnipeg.  Apparently this is a thing.  A lot of people don't know that Winnipeg has a "Little Italy" that takes up about 6-8 blocks of Corydon.  Within Little Italy there are restaurants, bars, cafes and of course gelati hotspots.  Between UrbanSpoon and word of mouth, I deduced that there are two great places to get a gelato in Little Italy: G.G. Gelati and Nucci's Gelati.  I'm going to offer a review of both locations and then tell you my preference. HOW EXCITING!

G.G. Gelati

I first went to G.G. Gelati after going into Nucci's, looking at the line, looking at the top flavour list and went "meh" (I was with a friend and clearly we didn't look too hard).  So we decided to go to G.G.'s instead which is about a block over.  The interior of the gelati parlor was very clean, and it was clear that it had gone under renovation some time ago.  I found the prices to be in line with what I was expecting for a quality gelato product.  However, once we were served, I found the portions to be quite small ($4 for one little scoop of one flavour).  I had the lemon sorbetto (usually the citrus sorbets are my favourite) and my friend had the chocolate. The sorbetto was smooth; almost too smooth in a way.  For my taste, it was far too sweet and tasted similarly to commercially produced sorbet. My friend had no complaints about the chocolate gelato.  It appeared to be quite smooth, but I didn't get any raving reviews.  It was nothing special.

From the reviews I see on UrbanSpoon/TripAdvisor/Yelp,  G.G. Gelati is no longer owned by an Italian family.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in this instance it kind of is.  When you're in the business of making gelati, recipes handed down from generation to generation tend to allow the business to remain a fixture in the community.  When the gelati changes, people are less inclined to go (worse quality and there are plenty of good ice cream/gelati places in Winnipeg).

6/10

Nucci's Gelati

I went to Nucci's on a whim last night.  I had received my first paycheque and with that, my corresponding outrage of how little my take home pay is due to tax deductions (I'm still low income dammit!).  However, I came home to a cheque waiting for me from MPI for a whole $23.00 due to my Drivers re-assessment.  The idiot woman who handled my insurance registered me as a new driver and I had to go back and provide evidence of the contrary.  Luckily my insurance payments are now in line with what I had originally budgeted.

ANYWAYS, that's not my point.  The point is that I wanted some gelati to make my tears stop, so I decided to try Nucci's since it was later and I figured there would be very little line.  Luckily I was right about that! Nucci's has a ton of flavours (arguably more than G.G., but many of them aren't displayed).  Once you go up to the counter, there is a list of "new" flavours which are all almost exclusively in the back.  I decided on a strange combination I got lime sorbetto on the bottom and black cherry gelato on top.  I got a small for $5 and it was considerably more gelati than I received at G.G.  I also love how Nucci's is still owned by the family and their gelati hasn't changed much in the past few decades.

The black cherry was my favourite part.  It was smooth and had a real-tasting cherry flavour unlike many "cherry" ice creams you find at the grocery store or ice cream booths.  The lime sorbetto's texture was interesting.  I found that until it melted a bit, it had a tough time coagulating therefore making it difficult to eat. However the flavour was spot on from what I'd expect from a good home-made sorbet.  The lime was tart and it was not overly sweet.  Absolutely perfect flavour.

9/10

Clearly I prefer Nucci's.  That would be my recommendation between the two.  However, in this same post I'd like to address my other dessert experience: BDI!

Bridge Drive-In

Nestled down by the river on Jubilee Ave., BDI (Bridge Drive In) has been serving ice cream and shakes to Winnipeggers for decades.  When I first decided to move to Winnipeg, I had many people tell me that BDI was an absolute must for when summer hit and it was warm enough for ice cream.  

I can't really comment on the service since I went when it was fairly slow.  However, the kids running it seemed to know what they were doing and I received my peach milkshake quite promptly. It was pretty good, better than Dairy Queen.  I'm going to get a bit of flack for this, but I didn't find it to be anything special.  My milkshake wasn't very "peachy" and tasted more like vanilla to be completely honest.  However, I'm always up for trying it again.  I want to see what this "Goog" thing is all about.  

It's at a beautiful location with a bridge and walking trails to wander and stroll around with your ice cream-y treats!

7/10