The Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival was quite an event. Over the course of a few hours we hand-scooped and gave away almost 4,000 cones of gelato. Attendees were given a choice of Ferrero Rocher, our chocolate-hazelnut flavor, or Stracciatella, milk gelato with little rags of chocolate.

The periodic rain was much less of a deterrent than the loud music performance that took place directly above our cart. I felt like the neighborhood curmudgeon yelling, “Turn that racket down!”

One of the reasons we had such a long line was that our portions were so much bigger than some of the bites of chocolate being given away at other booths. The event raised an awful lot of money for Project Open Hand so it was well worth it.

Thanks to everyone who showed up on Thursday evening for the late-summer Club Naia Gelato Flight at our Shattuck store. It was packed!

We got plenty of good feedback on our new crop of flavors. The rundown of our “report card” is:

Siena: 22% of the popular vote
Tcho: 21%
Cobblestone and Riso: Tied for 18%
Polenta: 10%
Horlicks: 8%
Sarsaparilla: 3%

With forty-four flavors in every gelateria we usually manage to find something for everyone. If you missed the flight be sure to make sure you are a member of Club Naia (it’s free) by signing up at one of our stores and keep watch for more flights later in autumn and in the winter.

Actually, who doesn’t like chocolate? I’ve met a few people who don’t like chocolate, and I don’t care for them. To me, it’s like saying, “I don’t like water,” or “I hate it when the sun is out,” or “No Thanks, I prefer to sleep standing up.”

September 12th & 13th you will be able to sample a few flavors of our chocolate gelato at the 14th Annual Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival. We have been invited several times and just haven’t been able to arrange it (you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to do one of these events well.) We are planning to bring a whole truck full of gelato for the two days as we have heard that the crowds are huge.

Please don’t let the huge crowds scare you away as all of the proceeds from the event benefit Project Open Hand which has been feeding seniors and people with serious illnesses in both San Francisco and Alameda County for almost 25 years.

When we say we make gelato using local ingredients we don’t mean just local produce. We also use locally made products like Mr Espresso from Oakland, Pavel’s Yogurt from San Leandro, and Guittard Chocolate from Burlingame, just to name a few.

Our newest gelato flavor that uses a local product is Single Malt Whiskey Gelato. That’s right. Gelato made with real whiskey.

Last year, at Slow Food Nation, we met up with the guys from St George Spirits (you may also know them from their Hanger One Vodka.) They said they loved our gelato and we said we loved their booze and that is really all it takes sometimes to strike a deal.

What is great about the Single Malt Whiskey Gelato is the delicious flavor that comes from the combination of our light, milky gelato and the complex, aromatic whiskey. For some people, drinking whiskey is a bit like drinking fire water and it is difficult to actually taste the whiskey. But here, in a little cup of gelato, you can actually notice that whiskey is not just fire water but a rich, unique flavor all its own.

Working with a local company allows us to get exactly the product we need rather than going to the store and grabbing a bottle off the shelf. Alcohol proof, water content and flavor profile are all things that were discussed before they gave us a special, unlabeled bottle of their Single Malt Whiskey.

It’s a question we answer most of the year, “Why don’t you have cherry sorbetto?” We certainly do have cherry sorbetto but we only serve our Cherry Sorbetto for a few months each year because that is the cherry season here in Northern California. While our competitors make their cherry flavors with anything from frozen cherries to cherry concentrate and even canned cherry pie filling (don’t laugh, I’ve seen it) ours is made with Bing cherries grown nearby in Linden, CA.

For four years now Mike from B&B Ranch has given me a call and invited me out to whatever part of their 160 acre orchard they are picking from. Every time he shows me around and talks about how the crop is and the price.

Luckily he doesn’t expect me to pick my own from the tree. I usually just take a few pictures and eat way too many cherries. I do get my pick of the already picked, though. In the photo, the two crates on the back of the trailer are just a few of the cherries I selected from the hundreds of pounds they were quickly harvesting.

We invite you to try our freshly picked, freshly made Bing Cherry Sorbetto. It won’t be here long.

For a limited time you can stop by two Cost Plus World Market stores and enjoy some of our gelato. It turns out the CEO of Cost Plus World Markets, Barry, has been a regular guest at our gelato shop in Walnut Creek for some time. He gave us a call and said, “How about it?”

We didn’t hesitate, of course.

So if you are in Greenbrae, near The Village at Corta Madera, or you are in San Jose at The San Jose Marketcenter on Coleman Ave, please stop by.

Each store features 12 different flavors of our fresh, hand-crafted gelato including our local Pistachio Gelato, our fresh Strawberry Sorbetto and more worldly flavors like Masala Chai. You can even find a Gingersnap Cookie flavor, made just for Cost Plus.

Gelato at an art gallery opening?
We’ve done it.

Gelato for a Yahoo! corporate event, for 2,000?
We’ve done it.

Gelato at an outdoor wedding?
We’ve done it, several times.

Gelato at a Pixar wrap party?
We’ve done it.

Bar Mitzva? Birthday? Luau? Sorority fundraiser?
Done it, done it, done it, done it.

Please give us a call the next time you suddenly get stuck with the party planning duties. Small orders can be picked up in our stores and large events are handled with our portable gelato cart and staff. A couple gallons of gelato or a couple thousand of people, we can help.