Bravo Gelato: Free this Saturday.

First of all, even if you don’t live in Nashville, read this as Bravo Gelato does have plans to expand and you want to vie for one in your home town; believe me, you do! I’ll explain those details further down, but first, I absolutely LOVE Bravo Gelato.  If you live in the Nashville area, you need to go today because they have:

Margarita Sorbet

Yep, you read that right – *Margarita Sorbet – and it’s just soooooo good.  There is some real tequila in here – enough to flavor, but you’ll be fine to drive home.  This got me thinking that I should serve this at my next dinner party so I asked Noel, the General Manager, if I could special order some.  “Absolutely.  The minimum order, a 6 quart tub, is $71.99 ($64.99 for non-alcoholic flavors and if you have poor math skills, that’s $1.50 per 4 oz serving of the spiked kind).  We can make any drink flavor that uses pure, fresh ingredients.  We have Mojito and Pina Colada also today, but we have made Lemon Drop Gelato, Strawberry Champagne, Peach Bellini, and several gelatos using local brew Yazoo.  For our free Saturday give-away we’ll have Jack n’ Honey on hand.”

Excuse me – Free Saturday give away? Details please:

Pistachio Gelato with half eaten Raspberry-Pomegranate Sorbet in the background.

“It’s National Ice Cream month, so this year we decided that we should give away free gelato on July 31 from 12PM-3PM to celebrate.  We hope it becomes a yearly tradition.” (Village Green location only)

I immediately quizzed him on flavors to expect this Saturday and he promises that you all will be very impressed with the emphasis on local flavors highlighted throughout his gelato (which they doing spectacularly every day, btw).  The ones I wrote down include the aforementioned Jack n’ Honey and Yazoo Heffe Banana as well as Key Lime Pie (with graham crackers), Banana Pudding, Peanut Butter with (local) Honey, and Maple w/ Benton’s Bacon.  Saturday, Noel will start his day at The Farmer’s Market and the ingredients available will determine many of the flavors to be highlighted for Free Gelato Day.  If you’d like to find out what the flavors are on any given day, follow the store on Twitter: twitter.com/BravoGelatoNash

Mixing the bacon into the Maple Gelato. Image from **LoveandOliveOil.com.

What I love about Bravo Gelato, besides the taste, is the purity of their gelato.  No artificial ingredients or food dyes used.  (The one exception is Cotton Candy.)  Even the Red Velvet Cake gelato they featured a couple weeks ago was actually brown in color folded in with the Cream Cheese Gelato.  Noel did not add the enormous amount of red dye that I’ve come to expect with Red Velvet Cake.  In fact, he didn’t add any.  As a mom who fights the ever constant fight against food dyes being present in my 3 kids’ daily food, I really appreciate this stance that Bravo has taken.

***Image from Erin'sFoodFiles.com.

So, if you don’t live in Nashville, you are possibly a bit envious not to be able to indulge this Saturday.  Well, I will cheer your day with the news that Bravo will expand sometimes in the future to a few other Southern cities.  You see, they sell wholesale to more than 35 local restaurants and the wholesale business, just like parent company Christie Cookie, makes up a large portion of their sales.  With locations in other Southern cities they can continue to focus on supporting local farmers and being true to the distinct city in which they are, while providing an outlet for walk-in customers to get their dose of daily goodness.  If you want Bravo to consider your city, email Noel [email protected] and let him know why they should expand there.  Really; he would love to start planning the future expansion which he promises to be deliberate and embracing of the culture of each locale (i.e. don’t expect a fast and furious expansion pace.  Bravo wants to do this right.)

Bravo Gelato at the Christie Cookie location in Green Hills.

So, I need to own up to something here: when the Bravo Gelato line was first added to Christie Cookie, I was not a fan.  But after a restructuring of the gelato process along with the in-house approach to making each flavor, which occurred about 18 months ago, I am now a convert.  Hands down, Bravo wins my nod for the best gelato I’ve had outside of Italy.  It might win in a tête à tête against Italy’s as well, but the side walk benches with a view of the parking lot can’t compete with benches in Italy with the view over St. Mark’s Square.  But Bravo is also located in the heart of Green Hills and St. Mark’s Square can’t compete with that convenience.

Bravo Gelato is located inside Christie Cookies at The Village Green Shopping Center: 4117 Hillsboro Rd,  37215

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*My bet is that the Margarita Sorbet will sell out fast, so do go today, Wednesday, as it is spectacular.
**If you love food, you absolutely need to check out the blog www.loveandoliveoil.com, linked here to their post on Bravo Gelato.  It is written in Nashville and is full of amazing recipes and photographs.  Obviously, I love blogs.  But when I find a blog as beautiful as this one, I fall in love again.
***Ditto for www.erinsfoodfiles.com, again linked to her post on Bravo Gelato.  I think we’ll need to do a post in the Fall just about all the great Nashville Food Blogs as I’m wondering, after looking through these wonderful blogs the past few days, if there is a need for epicurious.com anymore???

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