The tour truck that can’t be missed has brought plenty of smiles to customers’ faces, as well as some great stories and anecdotes (which we love to hear!). We met one family of four who formerly lived on Mott Street in SoHo, close to one of our franchised Ciao Bella gelato bars. They were thrilled to see us! We gave them a taste of our premium gelatos and sorbets, and it gave them a small taste of being back in the Big Apple.

Not that I would ever compare Ciao Bella to a fast food joint, but our van does have a drive-thru! Well, let me clarify that. We had one customer at PCC in Issaquah, WA drive up with his truck and order straight from his front seat! Ciao Bella never fails to deliver on taste and on customer service.

One way to hear about where Ciao Bella is heading next, or “Chasing Bella” as we refer to it, is by logging onto Facebook and liking our page (CiaoBella). That way, you’ll get up-to-date information about where the yellow and pink van is heading next. We’ve had numerous fans come up and tell us they heard about the event on Facebook, so it is a helpful tool for all the gelato and sorbet lovers out there.

On a closing note, I’d like to share a simple, yet delectable recipe shared by a fan in Washington. Our younger fans need not read on, because this special treat is for the 21 and older crowd. The creative woman told us she hollows out a big bowl of Prickly Pear sorbet, pours Tequila in the middle, and wallah, a cold, refreshing, and potent adult frozen cocktail! For those of you unfamiliar with the Prickly Pear flavor, I compare it to biting into a juicy cactus (in the best way, of course). It’s a unique blend of sweet desert flavor and tropical vibes, perfect with tequila (if you’re of age, of course). It would be an interesting cocktail to bring to your next summer party.

Thank you Seattle for the wonderful memories, and we look forward to coming back soon!

That's a happy Bella Boy and Girl!

It’s hard to believe that my sweetest summer has come to an end.  The last stop on the West Coast Gelatomobile tour was a back to school event on Sunday at the Whole Foods in Los Gatos, which was  a ton of fun and a huge success. And it seemed fitting that I closed out the tour running the event with Bill, since that’s also how the summer started!

I spent the morning cleaning out the truck – it’s amazing what the remnants of 3 months living out of a truck looks like!!…now I have to clean my living room floor! – and just got back from returning the truck to the San Francisco warehouse.  I am certain I’ll never again have a job that brings other people so much happiness, nor will I see as many smiles in the course of a day at work.

If I’ve learned one thing this summer, it is that: that a delicious treat brings smiles to the faces around you.  Keep that in mind this fall and winter: if you ever need to brighten a gray day, visit your nearest grocery store for a pint or several of Ciao Bella, and you’ll cheer up everyone around you, and yourself in the process!

Take care, and don’t forget to treat yourself!
xoxo,
WCBG (West Coast Bella Girls)

Our sweet spot at the Metropolitan Market!

Today was the West Coast Bella Girls’ last day in both Washington and in the Pacific Northwest.  We spent the day at two Metropolitan Markets, a fantastic chain that I had actually never visited before.  If you haven’t, you should check them out – it’s a great market, and they have a nice selection of Ciao Bella, which, by now has become clear to me, is an indicator of a good store!  Plus, at the afternoon store, we were able to pull right up on the sidewalk, near their adjustable umbrellas and their flower selection – it was probably our best set up of the whole summer, and was nice to close out our northern swing with a bang!

We’ll be on the road for the next two days, headed back to the Bay Area, and then have two days off for an old friend’s wedding.  I’ll be back on Sunday for the last event of the West Coast Tour – I can’t believe it’s ending so soon.  See you then!

A perfect day for sampling!

Today, the West Coast Bella Girls sampled at two Safeways down on opposite sides of Renton, WA, and we had what was probably the prettiest weather of our entire summer.  It was sunny and beautiful – warm, but not hot, with an occasional nice cool breeze – literally the perfect weather for gelato and sorbet sampling.

As such, our events went off without a hitch: great products plus a good setting to enjoy them in equals lots of happy samplers!  But it also means there’s not much else to tell you about the day – in a word, it was perfect!

So instead, I’ll fill you in on our plan for tomorrow, our day off!  First, we’re going to hang out with Otis, the dog of our friends whose house we’re staying in, and probably take him for a walk around the lake near their house!  For our morning coffee, we’ll hit Uptown Espresso, where the foam really is as thick and velvety as they claim – I have no idea how they do it!  I made some pretty good foam in my barista days, but it doesn’t compare…  Next, we plan to hit University Village for some shopping (or at least window shopping) before heading to Pike’s Place Market and Beecher’s for some cheese making viewing, and some of the most delicious mac-and-cheese I’ve ever had for lunch.  After that, we’re headed to the downtown library, which reopened recently after being rebuilt – we spent hours in the old library on family trips to Seattle, and the new one is even more impressive!  Whenever we get hungry again, we’ll probably venture over to Serious Pie for a pizza.  And at that point, I think we’ll be ready to call it a day!

Happy Monday to you all – we’ll be back with more adventures on Tuesday!

This little cutie ran up after his shopping trip to tell me they bought the Chocolate!

The West Coast Bella Girls are, in addition to being sorbet and gelato fans, baseball fans.  Our Dad was a college baseball catcher, and he passed his love of the game on to his daughters.  So, with a home game on the calendar, Heather and I were really hoping that the stars would align for us to catch the Mariners/Yankees game tonight at Safeco field, but no dice.

Here was the plan: our afternoon event was set to run from 3-6.  Since the weather was forecast to be warm, we were expecting we might go through our samples pretty quickly, so that we’d potentially be done even before 6.  Then we’d pack up the truck – we’ve gotten pretty efficient and can do our set up or tear down in less than 20 minutes! – and get on the road to the game.  We brought clothes with us, and figured we’d find somewhere safe to park the truck, change in the back, and head out!

Unfortunately, the stars turned out to be very unaligned, even though our plan seemed like such a good one.  First, was the address mishap.  I diligently typed the address of our second event into Gary the Garmin, but Gary couldn’t seem to find the location.  That was a red flag, but given Heather’s disgust with Gary, we figured maybe he was just confused.  So, we pulled out the iPhone and put the address in the google map program, and it pointed us on our way.  However, the iPhone doesn’t speak it’s directions to us like Gary does, so once I got Heather to the right road, I told her the store would be 3.6 miles ahead on the left, and went to work on my computer, doing our Twitter and Facebook updates.  I wasn’t paying attention to how long we had been driving til Heather asked how far we were, and I realized we had overshot it by a few minutes!  Darn!

So, we found a place to turn around (you can’t just flip a U-ie anywhere in our 23 foot long vehicle!) and headed back, but Heather was saying she was pretty certain the only things we had passed were trees and rock quarries.  Sure enough, when we got back to what had been given to me as the store’s address…we were right next to a run down barn and a pile of rocks.  Darn #2!

I hopped on the phone and called the store to get the correct address – next time you’re in Maple Valley, Washington, be aware that Maple Valley Hwy (the street I was told the store was on) and Maple Valley Black Diamond Hwy (the name of the street the store clerk gave me) are the same road, but on opposite sides of the freeway!  Argh!

We quickly found our way to the right address, but unfortunately again, we had to wait over 30 minutes before 4 spots in a row opened up for us to pull in and get set up (which made us all the more grateful to the stores that are able to reserve parking for us before we arrive!). Darn #3!

And lastly, the weather didn’t cooperate, or at least it wasn’t quite what we were expecting.  It didn’t rain or storm like the other day, but it definitely was much cooler and more overcast than had been forecast, and of course people are noticeably less intrigued by ice cream when it’s cold out than when it’s hot.  Darn #4!

It wasn’t all bad though.  We may have missed the Mariners’ game, but we got to hang out with these ‘boys of summer’, and I have to say, they were a pretty good substitute.  It’s a pretty good life having a job that makes other people so happy!

Look closely - can you see the double rainbow reflection?!

So, I’m beginning to think I might have jinxed myself, with my blog post about sunny Seattle, because ever since that post, the weather has been more, well, typical, of the area, or at least typical of Seattle’s stereotype.

Now, I don’t know if rain and gray skies are actually typical for the summers in Seattle.  After all, in all the summer trips we took here, it really was sunny every time.  I think I’ve heard that August in Seattle is generally sunny and warm.

And of course two weeks ago, Seattle was part of the heat wave that hit the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures in the 100s across the region.  We missed the heat by a week, which is either good (our AC in the truck doesn’t really work, so we would have been dying of heat) or bad (samplers sure would have been happy to see us!), depending on how we look at it.

But of course Seattle has the reputation of being overcast and/or rainy a good part of the year, and we saw some of that the past couple days.  The best was a period of about 15 minutes, where there was a torrential downpour, combined with lightening, and a rainbow!  I’ve never seen lightening and a rainbow at the same time, but it was pretty awesome.  The rainbow was actually a full one, with a full, though pretty faint, double image.  I snapped a picture (or seven), but it really doesn’t do it justice, and of course, I couldn’t capture the lightening too.  So, you’ll have to take my word for it that it was really cool.

I also didn’t get a picture of her antics, because I was too busy congratulating and serving her, but definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far was the woman who was undeterred by the thunder, lightening, and rain, and who came over in the middle of the storm for her free Ciao Bella sample, using the sunscreen for her windshield as an umbrella!

Thankfully, the storm passed as quickly as it came on, but take the woman as proof: Ciao Bella’s samples are worth wading through a little water for!

Today, we are trying to decipher what the state of Washington has in mind with the pictures they have included on their carpool lane signs.

First, I’d like to say that I think it’s cute that they drew little pictures – in a down economy, soliciting sketches for road signs is a clever way to give some art student a nice government job!

But second, and more importantly, we’re trying to decide if by drawing what is presumably a little car, the state was trying to convey the message that we, driving in something closer to the size of the pictured bus, are not invited to the carpool lane party, even though we always have two people in the truck!

We’ve steered clear of the lane, mostly because it’s on the far left and we’re always nervous about getting all the way over there, or being able to make our exit, but we’re curious to know if we’d be allowed in if we did want to venture over!  Let us know if you have an opinion!

Heather and Gary (our Garmin GPS, so named before we realized she has a lady voice) are not getting along very well right now.

Heather has a few gripes with Gary.  First, Heather finds it very unhelpful when Gary tells us to “proceed to the highlighted route”.  If we knew where the heck we were supposed to be going, aka, the highlighted route, we wouldn’t have been asking Gary for help.  I have to say, I consider that a fairly valid point.

Next, Heather thinks that Gary needs to work on her enunciation, her pronunciation, and her emphasis on certain words.  For instance, today, when Gary wanted us to take Washington 202 East, it came out of Gary sounding like “two-oh-tuhwee”, all one word.  I was able to understand Gary because I had the luxury of looking at her screen and knowing what she was trying to say, but Heather, being the driver, was much less certain where the heck she was supposed to be going until I could translate.  Gary does also often choose odd words to emphasize.  For instance, you would hope the emphasis in the direction ‘stay left on WA 202 E’ would be on LEFT and EAST.  Gary has been known to emphasize much less important words, like WASHINGTON.  Thanks Gar, we’re aware of what state we’re in.  Again, I think the point goes to Heather on this one.

Heather also disagrees with some of the decisions Gary makes in directing us.  To get to the house we’re staying at here in Seattle, she insists on taking us down a small, residential street, one block past but parallel to a much bigger street with two lanes each way and stoplights at intersections that also intersects with the street we live on.  Heather’s point is again, well taken.

But fourth, and perhaps what has most raised Heather’s ire, is the fact that Gary has been, of late, taking a really long time to find herself every time we turn her on.  She has this annoying habit of pretending like she doesn’t remember where she is, even though she directed us to exactly where we’re sitting.  And she usually shows us sitting right there, at the right intersection, but she blinks a question mark, as though she’s not sure if we’re still there, or have somehow moved her to somewhere else without letting her know we’ve moved.  She has no reason to be lost, and in fact isn’t lost, but still can’t find herself and takes ages to ‘acquire satellites’.  Heather’s displeasure with this annoying new habit of Gary’s caused her to exclaim today, when I asked if Gary needed to be charged: “no more food for you!  You’re getting fat and lazy!”

I’m not ready to throw the towel in on Gary yet.  She may have her flaws, but she hasn’t led us astray yet, and I’m still glad to have her, funky routes, odd word emphasis and all!  Plus, it makes for good entertainment for me, with Heather muttering away, while Gary chirps on happily, or at least blinks a friendly red question mark!

As you can see by the photo, it was a gorgeous afternoon/early evening in Seattle, and we had a line, just about like the one pictured, for our entire event, and we actually went through our allotted samples in about 2 hours!!

Now I’m sure you have heard, as we have, about how the weather in Seattle is so terribly dreary, and that it’s gray and rainy all the time.  Growing up in Hawaii, our family traveled to the west coast often – usually once a year during the summers.  And on a number of those trips, we spent several days to a week in Seattle.  And every time, we had beautiful weather, like the weather we enjoyed tonight!  Now, I don’t know if we bring the good weather with us, or if Seattle’s bad-weather-reputation is just exaggerated to the point of legend and it really isn’t all that gloomy in real life, but whatever it is, we’re not complaining!  And, we’re excited to enjoy the rest of the week – our iPhones tell us that it’ll be mostly sunny and in the mid to upper 70s the rest of the week – sounds great to us!!  Come join us!

Our afternoon sampling started out strong, and stayed that way the whole event!

Today’s events were a wonderful way to close out the West Coast Bella Girls’ time in Oregon.  Everything went wonderfully, and even the weather cooperated – a morning that looked to have threatening clouds overhead gave way to a warm, clear and simply lovely evening, and the samplers were out in force!  Thankfully, we restocked a couple days ago, so we had just the right amount of cups to finish our events strong, but without having too much leftover in the freezers for the drive north (we don’t like to drive with too much ice cream in the truck, since our freezers are cold plates and have to be recharged with a generator to stay cool, which we can’t do while driving!).

Although we’re looking forward to heading towards Seattle, we are decidedly sad to be leaving Portland.  We had a wonderful time this past week and really enjoyed the gorgeous state of Oregon and the friendly and polite residents of Portland and the surrounding suburbs.  If you have a chance to visit, we highly recommend it – there’s so much to see (Portland’s Rose Garden) and do (Powell’s Books – a full city block!) and eat (Screen Door, our favorite this trip by far.  Fried chicken, burger and mac and cheese are not to be missed.  Or Bakery Bar for brekkie – cheddar scallion or apple maple bacon scones, delish!)!  And whenever you need your Ciao Bella, the local New Seasons, Whole Foods, and Zupan’s Markets have you covered.  It’s official, it’s a great city!