Foodbuzz 24 24 24: Gelato 24 ways

Have I mentioned how much I love Foodbuzz and their monthly 24 24 24 event... L O V E it!!! The wonderful people there along with Visa Signature card have let me do it again and host a Gelato 24 ways tasting!! (actually it was gelato 20 ways... they only had 20 flavors that night whoops!) Either way we were all going to get together at Mona Lisa Cafe to get our gelato on!

See the guys hanging out in front... they totally harassed me about taking their picture LOL (they were joking)! So that guy to the left owns It's a Guy Thing across the street, so here's your shout out! You better leave me a comment so I know you saw this!! :D

Mona Lisa Cafe is out in Webster NY (basically a suburb to the east of Rochester). My one friend asked me "how the he!! did you ever find this place?" It's true, it's not the most convenient place for me to travel to... but OH MAN IS IT WORTH IT!!!!

I first learned of Mona Lisa Cafe soon after it opened (May 2008) and it was the gelato that drew me there! You see, growing up in norther NJ, we had a lot of gelato around... then I moved up here and *POOF* no more gelato... it's a very sad story if you ask me! So when I heard a little cafe offering TWENTY-FOUR kinds of gelato had opened, I knew I had to go! (and PS to all those Rochester folk saying "what are you talking about there is a gelato place on park ave" yeahhh... I don't know about you.. but I tried it... and it didn't taste like gealto to me... more like normal ice cream... no thanks!)

Angie was our hostess with the mostest while we were there!!! She ROCKED!!!! She's one of the owners and was over the top wonderful to us! She set us up for the tasting and told us all about the favorite flavors of customers and how they come up with some of the crazy flavors... like this one:


Cotton Candy- seriously... it tasted just like the stuff, in gelato form... no weird chemically taste either, just instant memories of being a little kid with a face covered in sticky cotton candy glue.

Another reason I love gelato... it's only made with 4% milk fat... ice cream is made with anywhere from 20-30% milk fat. AKA gelato is a less fattening option (HELL YEAH!!!) Here are some other interesting gelato facts (click the image to make it larger).


The owners of Mona Lisa Cafe bought their gelato machine straight from Italy and a cute little Italian man taught them all the secrets, along with his recipes! He still shows up when he has new recipe ideas (popcorn was the last one before cotton candy!!). Believe it or not, Angie said it was a hit!!!

As for the flavor that was our number 1 that night for my crew: (drum roll please)


Amaretto!!!! My mom was so jealous that they had it and she wasn't there to have some. The place by us in NJ never carries Amaretto anymore for some reason... boo to them and WOOHOO to Mona Lisa Cafe!!

The second runner up was peanut butter! Man it was SO GOOD!!!!

An important note about eating gelato if you are under the age of 3... always use two spoons and wear a bib :)


Wondering what the other flavors were?? (Scroll over the image to see the flavor)



OH and if you are still hungry after eating to your eyeballs in gelato... they have a full menu of panini's, salads, and a HUGE selection of Italian cookies and cakes :) They will also happily accommodate larger groups. Just give them a call and they will get you all set up!

Is anyone else feeling like they just gained 5 lbs?? So tell me, which flavor do you think you'd like the best??