Brooklyn's Biddrina Gelato
"Mentre un'altra estate se ne va."
The Emperor of Ice Cream
It’s safe to say I enjoy ice cream in all forms. Perhaps a bit too much. Especially during summer. Bring on the soft-serve twist with that peanut-brittle crunch coating from the Mister Softee truck camped out by Brooklyn Bridge Park, a mint chocolate-chip sundae at Bernie’s, a black-and-white malt from Shake Shack, an overpriced ice cream novelty from the corner bodega, or a pint of Butter Pecan Häagen-Dazs (a pint is a single serving, right?)
But there’s a special place in my cholesterol-clogged heart for gelato. And just as the Negroni, with its transportive magic of instantly evoking memories of Italy with each sip, a cup or cone of gelato possesses that same power.
When I lived in Seattle I used to frequent Gelatiamo, which opened its downtown shop across from Benaroya Hall in 1996. The owner, Maria Coassin, came from a family of bakers in Maniago, a town in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. I always had a difficult time selecting two complementary flavors and would pace back forth between the colorful trays of gelato on display within the glass counter. But once Maria hipped me to her personal favorite flavor combination—Dark Chocolate gelato and Lemon sorbetto, served a stainless steel cup—that was my move.
I’ve since branched out and usually keep Pistachio, Nocciola, or Amarena Cherry in heavy rotation, but from my travels in Italy I’ve become hooked on Gelato al Melone (see the Grom photo up top). I could get my melon fix at the Grom gelato shops in New York, but they’ve all permanently closed since the pandemic. On rare occasions I might find it offered at the Eataly outposts here in New York but it isn’t a common flavor to encounter in the wild. (An exception being the stellar cantaloupe soft serve at Leo in Williamsburg.)
But this summer that changed with the opening of an Italian gelato cart in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.