Lush Gelato, SF and East Bay

This post is dedicated to one of my favorite Bay Area ice cream shops, Lush Gelato. Lush Gelato first opened in North Beach (home of wonderful Italian food and gelaterias), but has since expanded into Oakland and Berkeley. The Lush Gelato in Berkeley is across the street from Cheeseboard Pizza, and I've spent many evenings hitting up two of my favorite Berkeley establishments one after the other.

Lush Gelato perfectly exemplifies the Bay Area ice cream style of inventive flavors, and has applied that style to its gelato. Lush uses locally sourced ingredients to make both delicious and interesting ice creams. The consistency of Lush gelato is somewhere between harder American ice cream and the super-soft style of traditional Italian gelato. What really wins me over with Lush is that they have a wide selection of flavors, and they're all good! The other thing I really love is that they have a lot of flavors that use sweet cheeses and creams (creme fraiche, marscapone, etc.) that really make their flavors stand out.

On my most recent Lush outing, I got a cup with a scoop of Cowgirl Creamery fromage blanc chocolate chip cookie dough and a scoop of Marscapone balsamic chocolate chip (did I mention I love cheese-based gelato???). These are definitely my two favorite flavors that Lush has to offer, but I also frequently get their cappuccino chip and dark chocolate. My wife got their Dulce de leche and dark chocolate in a cone. All their gelato flavors are fantastic, so you really can't go wrong! They also offer handmade cones that are really good and have a hint of cinnamon in them, which can be nice with some of the gelato flavors. All in all, Lush is a solid stop for delicious Bay Area gelato and deserves a score of 5/5.

Look at all those flavors! So hard to choose...