Hollywood Gelato = Heaven-In-A-Cone

In the summer, weekend nights at 1640 Bayview see a lot of action. What breed of hotspot is situated here exactly, asks you? The neighbourhood watering hole? Not quite. The latest and greatest dancespot for the Yonge and Eglinton set? Uhh, try again.

Meet Hollywood Gelato, the Leaside area's purveyor of choice for frozen Italian soulfood. Hollywood offers 20-odd flavours of gelato and sorbetto--made daily in-house using all natural ingredients--in addition to beverages, baked goods, and other fine desserts.

Smolderingly rich and gut-wrenchingly decadent, their Rocky Rocher flavour is my all-time favourite. It recalls the orgasmic flavour of Ferroro Rocher chocolates perfectly, with generous amounts of whole hazelnuts tossed in for crunch-appeal. Pair it with the mixed berry sorbetto--trust me, you won't regret it--the tangy zip and berry seeds of the fruity flavour, together with the dense creaminess of the Rocher one, are enough to make this girl go weak in the knees. One time, the thought of this exact mind-blowing combination fueled a one-hour pilgrimage on foot to Hollywood. And, if that's not enough, after I finished my two scoops of heaven-in-a-sugar-cone, I was so distraught that the whole blissful experience was over, I got another one to keep me happy for the one-hour trek back home. It's that good.

While there are many options for deliciousness at Hollywood, a few offerings leave a little something to be desired. Lemon sorbetto, for example, is a flavour I use as a benchmark measure for gelato shops. The perfect sorbetto should not be too sweet, and sour enough to make the pucker creep up just so at the edge of your cheeks. It should taste of freshly ground zest, with a lemony linger that leaves you with lick-lick withdrawal when you finish, making you crave more. Hollywood's version is good, but not outstanding: the citrus flavour is not potent enough to make it really memorable.

Pistachio is another one of my favourite flavours and, unfortunately, Hollywood does not do it justice. I always eye their Grinch-coloured batch suspiciously--the best pistachio gelati, in my experience, is subtly green, almost brownish in tint--and, sure enough, when I did venture a taste, I found it sub-par. A true Italian would have scoffed at the much too sweet adaptation of a classic.

The mango, however, is just as it should be, tasting just like a juicy, ripe, tropical summer day in the Carribean. And the hazelnut packs a lot of punch as well. God bless you, oh roasted hazelnut perfection in frozen form!

Other interesting flavours include coconut cream pie, Mars bar, key lime pie, rum raisin, orange creamsicle and tiramisu, in addition to the usual fruity suspects. The standard chocolate and vanilla also get frou-frou uptown treatments. From this point forward, please refer to them as Valrhona Chocolate and Tahitian Vanilla, please and thank you.

A small cup (two scoops) will run you $3.95 plus taxes, while a large rings in at $4.95. Digging under the couch cushions for those few spare quarters will earn you a cone (and impress your date, you Moneybags, you!)

So yeah, join Freddy on his next trip to Hollywood. (Drop off some of that Rocky Rocher on your way out and I promise my everlasting love and affection in return...)

Hollywood Gelato
1640 Bayview (at Manor - 3 south of Eglinton)
416.544.9829
Monday to Saturday, 7am to midnight
Sunday, 8am to Midnight