#80 – BLACK GRAPE SORBET at IL LABORATORIO DEL GELATO

For the third year in a row, I’m going to attempt to eat every single item on Time Out New York’s annual 100 Best Dishes list. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100. Let the gluttony continue…

I wonder if I’m the only one who walks into Il Laboratorio del Gelato, examines their more than 20 flavor options and decides that the one I want is not available. And exits! Can you imagine leaving this gelato toy store without at least a sample?

Don’t get me wrong. I love this place and have for many years (even before they re-located to Ludlow Street), but I’ve been searching for one flavor in particular. Time Out listed their Black Grape Sorbet, which is one I’ve never tried, and this flavor seems to be the most elusive. I must have stopped by close to 20 times in search of it (I didn’t leave all those visits gelato-less). Because the flavors rotate so frequently and there is no telephone number, none of the employees were able to tell me if and when the black grape would be returning.

Well, I’d had about enough of this and one fateful Sunday afternoon, I came in and completed my ritual. Still no black grape sorbet on offer and when I asked another employee about it, she was pretty apathetic (borderline rude) when she told me that she hadn’t seen it in a long time. The staff here is generally moody, since I think they’re actually ice cream chefs who are forced to deal with the public.

This time however they did have two other sorbets with the word grape in them. Both red grape and green grape were available and so I figured I’d do a scoop of each and call it a day.

While green and red don’t necessarily equal black, I thought this might be a good compromise. Like all their flavors, both of these grape concoctions were mightily fresh and tasted exactly as advertised. The green was slightly more tart and refreshing, while the red was sweeter and juicier. Both featured bits of grape pulp throughout.

I’m sure the black grape is just as spectacular and perhaps one day I’ll find out. Now I can go back to visiting this store and not walking out empty-handed.

Would Il Laboratorio del Gelato’s Black Grape Sorbet make my Top 100 of the year? Can’t say for sure, but if it’s as good as the rest of their very accurate and delicious concoctions, the answer is most definitely. 9 out of 10.