Okay, so nobody ever accused us of being especially observant, but we only recently recognized that "Naia", at 451 Castro Street, was a gelateria. See, the sign only says the name, and there's no logo of an ice cream cone or anything . . . we'd always assumed it was some sort of minimalist modern art gallery.
Yeah, we're dumb. But on Sunday, we saw a few people outside eating frozen treats, and the lightbulb went off. We went in, and made pigs of ourselves. The only way it could have been better? Maybe if the holiday weekend weather had cooperated a little more. We're traditionalists in that we prefer our ice cream/gelato on hot days.
The first thing that hit us was the presentation: dozens of flavors of gelato, sorbretto, and soy gelato, vividly displayed in a glass case; the understated decor of the shop really lets the flavors pop. A visual treat (obviously, our camera phone didn't quite do it justice).
In any case, there are lots of sorbetto and soy options. The company currently makes more than 100 flavors throughout the year. From what we've heard, flavors have been known to change in middle of the day. Happily, the super-friendly staff encouraged us to sample away.
"Whole grains," one of the flavors we tried, wasn't to our taste. It was gritty and tasted like a bowl high-fiber cereal that's been soaked in milk for a few hours. Of course, we were probably out of our mind to try something called "Whole Grains" in the first place when the subject is frozen dessert. But everything else we tried was really good.
Details on flavors we dug and more after the jump
Canolli and Foresta Nero (Black Forest) were both delicious flavors in the "Ben & Jerry's-style/tons of ingredients" style. Xocolatl (spicy Mexican chocolate) was spicy, flavorful, and sweet. Mint chip tasted like natural mint, not like a stick of gum. The special flavor that day, Chinese Rose Tea, was really interesting and refreshing, though we couldn't see ourselves sitting down with a tub of it, as we'd gladly do with all the others we tried (again, aside from "Whole Grains"). In fact, Naia's creating a new flavor every week for all of 2007, some of which can be found here. Mmmm, we think pineapple upside down cake sound great.
Naia's taken advantage of some local companies' products for some of its flavors--such as "Mr. Espresso" in espresso ice cream and Scharffen Berger for one of its chocolate flavors.
While hot weather would bring us back quickly, we're tempted to keep stopping by to see what new flavor the shop's concocted every week. If you dig a ton of varieties to choose from when you go for gelato, we think you'll dig Naia too.
Other area locations include:
North Beach
520 Columbus Ave
Berkeley
2106 Shattuck Avenue
Walnut Creek
1245 North Broadway
Cal’s Naia Lounge
2475 Bancroft Way
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Welcome to San Francisco! Naia is a mainstay here, enjoy it anytime, weather outside is in impertinent to the enjoyment of gelato done right. May I suggest the most popular flavors? Nutella and Panacotta.
I like the zabbione (Not sure if I spelled that right) and espresso. Yum.
This place has been around for a couple of years now.
Mixed feelings about the whole Bay Area gelato trend...some of these places are really pretentious. I just can't get behind flavors like lavender, Chinese rose tea, or anything soy, or issues of presentation and decor.
That said, some of Naia's flavors are pretty good, but I hope the Bay Area isn't getting so overly trendy that the Ben & Jerry's and even the Baskin Robbinses don't still have their niches.
Lord help us if L.A.'s Pinkberry ever makes its way up here.