http://www.gelare.com.au/
I'm pretty much cut off from most media, bar the internet (although these days, what else do you really need). I don't own a TV, I don't really listen to the radio and I most definitely don't get the paper. Sometimes I'll skim through a magazine at a cafe.
On my drives, I listen to my iPhone play list. The only exception is when I have to plug the GPS into the charger and my phone can't transmit music across so I'll switch to a radio station instead. I don't know what I was listening to one day but I think it was B105 and the guys were talking about 'fist pump moments', which are basically snippets of awesomeness that occur during your day that aren't a major achievement but still deserving of recognition. The best example I heard was a girl finding a cockaroach in her shoe, shaking the shoe and having it fly up by accident and landing... on the cockaroach.
My own fist pump moment wasn't as epic as that. Marc and I have a history of being crap at deciding on eating destinations on the fly. Nowadays, I plan weekend food spots days in advance so we know exactly where we're going. Spontaneity has failed before.
Last Saturday, we'd just finished dinner at Sake Restaurant and felt like something sweet. With NO clash of opinions/disagreement/indecisiveness, we both simultaneously felt like trying Gelare at South Bank. WIN. It must be because we saw ads for it at the Batman movie the weekend before, seeding the idea in our minds. Proof that moving advertising works!
Gelare has a prime location in South Bank Parklands. I know this because I'm not often in South Bank but I feel like I've walked past Gelare a dozen times. The dessert scene there is getting more competitive thanks to Max Brenner and the new San Churro store. This is great news because South Bank is the ideal environment for late night dessert.
There are a fair few tables in the brightly lit interior but they were all taken so we were squeezed into the cold (and poor lighting, hence bad quality photos for me). I wish they installed some of those big outdoor heaters. That's pretty important for outdoor seating at an ice-cream store!
On offer was a host of different ice-cream flavors including classics, variations of classics and some low fat options. There wasn't anything really outlandish. Aside from plain old ice-cream in a cup or cone, you can get ice-cream related desserts such as waffles, sundaes and thickshakes.
We went for a large waffle with 2 scoops of ice-cream, an ice-cream based thickshake and a cup of coffee (as a 'palate cleanser').
Large waffles with Jamaican chocolate ice-cream and white chocolate and raspberry ice-cream
The waffle was indeed, 'large'. I can't imagine anyone eating a serve of this on their own, but, then again... there are some large appetites out there. We found this to be a great sharing size and even then, didn't finish the whole thing. Mind you we'd just finished dinner so that affects eating capacity for sure. The waffle texture was... ok. I'd succumbed to the notion that the only waffles I'll ever truly love are those at Max Brenners. Most others are just soggy crap. These were no Max Brenners but at they definitely weren't crap either. Our ice-cream flavors were the Jamaican chocolate and white chocolate and raspberry (I preferred one whilst Marc preferred the other; another fist pump moment). The waffle was also adorned with 2 little mounds of cream.
Cookie dough thickshake
I tried a bit of the thickshake, which we had ordered in cookie dough flavor. It was alright but I mostly just detected milky sweetness with the occasional cookie chunk. The shake at San Churro was better but more deadly.
Latte
Finally, the coffee was pretty good. I always need a coffee in these kinds of situations otherwise I start feeling sugar sweating out of my eyes (figuratively, not literally). I never expect dessert shop coffees to be much good but they tend to exceed my expectations.
Gelare is a good ice-cream store addition to South Bank Parklands. It's a step up from NZ Natural, along the same vein as Movenpick and not as standout as Max Brenner. In other words, somewhere in the middle of the pack but at least you don't have to waste half your weekend standing in queue. That's a major tick in my books.
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