Great weather. Small town fair. Free ice cream?

…I’d be there too. And after sifting through half of Long Island’s beach traffic – I was.

Pulling into the Kings Park Day celebration reminded me of every carnival or fair I’d been to as a child.  The streets were blocked off and people everywhere were having a great time enjoying a nice relaxing day.

Ciao Bella set up in front of Key Foods Supermarket, about a block away from the center of the festivities.  Our neighbors included Skinny Water (very refreshing in the 85° weather), Boars Head (cooking up hotdogs), and a variety of local food vendors.  The smell of fresh zeppoles never ceased to tempt me and the Key Foods employees were hard at work on the grill.

Being a very Italian neighborhood, the Key Foods residents loved the Ciao Bella name and were often found telling their own gelato stories over scoops of Chocolate Hazelnut.  Martino’s Pizza and Vasari Salon added to the fair by providing a moon-bounce for the kids, a DJ to dance along to, and (in true town-fair fashion) a spokesman announcing specials and prizes on a megaphone.

Our Alphonso Mango sorbet was gone before lunchtime (I have to admit, it was my breakfast as well) and the Tahitian Vanilla was soon to follow.  Later in the day, word of mouth made the Blood Orange sorbet a big hit.  I can’t tell you how many times I heard something like “I just tried some of my friend’s sorbet and I gotta have one” (it’s great to see Discover.Savor.Share in action)

I must say, I was truly envious of the number of young children (and some adults) who rode by on bikes, grabbed a scoop of gelato and rode away to enjoy the fair.  As we finished handing out the last sample, I had a great feeling about this event, although I wish I had one more sample to enjoy on the ride home