Restaurants
Lick It Gelato
Lick It Gelato was borne from a personal quest to bring gelato down to Harbourfront. Karolina and her boyfriend, Tobias, had lived in the area for nearly five years, long resenting the trek out to the east or west to get their hands on some decent gelato. So they decided to take it upon themselves to open up their own place, despite never having run a shop or even knowing how to make gelato.
"We did everything ourselves," Karolina says as we sit at one of Lick It's patio tables. "It's been us and one other couple; we painted everything, built the bar, we made these tables from reclaimed bowling alley lanes."
Karolina, who has a law degree (of all things), says she and her boyfriend took a gelato-making course out in Woodbridge shortly after making the decision to open their own place. "We finally got everything down," she says. "We even figured out how to make our own waffle cones after lots of trials and tribulations — lots of tribulations."
Lick It Gelato has about 10 flavours in store (soon to be 16 when its new counter arrives), pulling from a roster of 20 flavours and counting. The team uses fresh (and seasonal) fruits, real nuts, and other natural ingredients to make its gelato, which is represented in mostly classic flavours including lemon, pistachio, salted caramel, and chocolate hazelnut.
"You've got to try this one," Karolina says, emerging from the back space with a tub of banana gelato. "We just made it today, and it was so good we almost ate the whole thing!"
I brace myself for the spoon, never much a fan of anything "banana" flavoured (childhood ear infection medicine ruined me, alas), but this gelato really impresses me. It has a smooth consistency and the impossible taste of baked banana bread, of all things, and convinces me that I could definitely go for a scoop or two. I also sample the lemon — a classic, tart gelato that is made dairy-free — and the mojito which quickly becomes my favourite for its freshness and little specks of real mint leaves throughout.
Karolina also tells me that the shop has recently rolled out a "doggie gelato" (which is also people-friendly) that is made dairy-free and sugar-free with a peanut butter and banana flavour. Yes, actually. So far, the doggie gelato has received rave reviews (in the form of uncontrolled salivation) from Chloe the lab and Oscar the hound. I'm not sure exactly what to think, especially since my dog would give rave reviews to a half-eaten sandwich by the side of the road, but anything doggie-related usually makes me swoon, so I quickly decide I love the idea.
Back to people. Customers can mix and match their gelato choices with small (two flavours, $3.95), medium (three flavours, $4.95), and large options (four flavours $5.95), with Dufflet pastries to go alongside and espresso drinks made with I Drink Coffee organic roasted beans.
Karolina says she plans to keep on scooping right through the winter (with pumpkin spice, eggnog, and other seasonal flavours), during which she plans to add soups, sandwiches, and hot items to the menu. But, seeing through the rest of the summer, Lick It Gelato is open 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. during the week, and 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. on weekends.
Additional Photos:
Photos by Jesse Milns
Discussion
36 Comments
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This corner is a death trap for cafes!
"(which also people-friendly)"
maybe it's just me, but having an editor correct these types of errors before publishing for all to read is pretty important.
I will give this spot a shot before I judge it. Looks promising if they are indeed using fresh ingredients to make the gelato... Too many "pre-mixed" pregel places out there.
Don't let that stop you from going in...the gelato is really good. Almost as good as the gelato I had in Italy over the summer
LICK IT GELATO
250A Queens Quay W
Toronto, ON M5J 1B5
HOURS OF OPERATION
Monday to Friday: 8 AM - MIDNIGHT
Saturday & Sunday: 9 AM - MIDNIGHT
and it is in WHITE. hard to see while typing a comment
just sayin;)
I'm laughing at all this comments on how a gelateria should run... I grow up in Italy and 50% of my body fat comes from gelato :)
I work for five years in gelaterias there and we always used scoopers and never spatulas. If you ever being to Italy, you will see 50% of the people using spatulas and 50% using scoopers. The prices on the menues in Italy are most of the time 1 pallina, 2 palline, 3 palline... Pallina means "ball" or I guess it means scoop here. I also seeing lots of people talking about ready mixes on this blogs... All the gelaterias uses gelato ingredients (which are not ready mixes all the time but most of the time natural pastes)... I'm very familiar with Pregel products because 90% of the ingredients that we used in Italy was from this company. We use to use also a bit of Montebianco and Fabbri for a couple of flavors that Pregel wasn't making.
My point is, don't talk stupid if you are not from this busines and continue to eat cheap ice cream that doesn't even contain milk anymore.
I asked about the paddle thing last week and the owner said they just didn't like how it looked when it was scraped onto the cones. Most people in Canada eat their ice cream in a cone where as in Italy most people prefer a dish.
That's the million dollar question.
There aren't enough non-corporate businesses down here!
Way to go guys, ill be there all winter eating your gelato for sure!
But this article...seems unedited. How do you publish something without checking that first?!
YOU'RE AWESOME!
Awesome fake reviews, LICK IT.
C'mon. This makes you look completely ridiculous and fake.
Can't wait to check this place out, and give it a real review on yelp.
BTW, this stuff is NOT like the gelato from Italy. You're not fooling anyone who's ACTUALLY tasted the stuff.
LICK IT uses this shit as a base - http://www.pregelcanada.com/gelato/
It was established from the beginning between us, partners here at Lick It, that we will not be creating any "faeko",as you called it, reviews as everybody is entitled to their opinion. What's more, to us, it is absolutely priceless to receive ANY feedback as to what we should change, improve upon, work on.
We(partners)have created Lick It with our own hands- we learned, we built, we painted and now we make our gelato. It is our first business venture and we ask our customers for feedback on a regular basis. We have a guest book where you're more than welcome to leave comments. It is all because we are here to make it right. Why else would we even bother to open? I am very sorry to hear that you do not enjoy our gelato base. What do you use as a base at your gelato shop? I am not sure if you are aware but all of our products are imported from Italy and they are exceptional quality.
We cannot express enough gratitude for all the kindness and precious words of support that we have received from our neighbors and customers from all over so far. Thank you all for your feedback and we do welcome and appreciate any comments, good or bad, anything you'd like to express and share with us. We have had an amazing summer so far and hope to serve and please all your gelato/espresso needs:) Thank you all kindly.
What I didn't like was the staff saying "we make everything in house" or words to that effect when really you are using pregel for a base, and for some of your flavours. Seems as misleading as Tim Horton's "Always Fresh" slogan when all they are doing is finishing to bake flash frozen partially cooked desserts.
Having said that, if I was in the area again and wanted something to cool me down I would probably stop in again.
Good write up about pregel here:
http://www.openfile.ca/toronto/file/2010/08/real-scoop-about-whats-your-gelato