Many would argue that all eyes are on London for the 2012 Summer Olympics but Nashville Elites may disagree as the Gold, Silver, and Bronze were very prevelent at Bravo Gelato's Brentwood location last week. This exclusive challenge began even before the doors flung open with a heated gelato flavor concoction contest that brought out the wild, tasty, and spirited imaginations of our creative Elite squad.
Prior to our arrival, Bravo Gelato founder (and of Christie Cookie fame) Christie Hauck and his specially trained staff secretly chose the top 6 submitted flavors and lovingly produced them so that the games could begin! As the guests arrived, nobody knew which flavors earned a spot to compete in the taste test of all taste tests but boy were they happy with the choices! Competing flavors included: Maple Bacon Bourbon, Lemon Sugar Cookie, Vanilla Rum and Coke, Blueberry Lavender, Salted Caramel Strawberry, and Tennessee Cold Toddy
To ease the competitive tension, Christie greeted everyone with a flute of Italian Prosecco while we wandered and checked out the competition. Sheena T couldn't contain her excitement at her first Elite Event, "The prosecco was free flowing, the gelato was fantastic, and the company was spectacular!" So how does an ex-Vanderbilt University footballer get into the sweets business? Do. Share. And that's exactly what he did. Patten F sets the tone quite nicely: "The night's festivities kicked off with Christie telling us the story of how he came to make the best damn white chocolate macadamia nut cookies this side of reality, how they decided to add gelato to the business plan and how they searched the world for the best flavors and committed to make the best possible gelato possible. My favorite moment of his talk was when he pointed out that since the milk comes fresh from local cows, the milk in your gelato on Friday was inside a cow on Monday." Locavores unite!
Meanwhile, Joshua B multi-tasked by learning while he lapped up the tasty goodness. "I knew that Gelato was an Italian style ice cream. However, I learned a lot about what makes a Gelato a Gelato. The fat content, the air content, the liquid content and the ingredients are some of the differences between standard ice cream and what was offered at Bravo Gelato."
Without further adieu, the competition began with the lead gelato chef reading desciptions of each competitor that had Chris G in a tizzy because "the lady who wrote out all the descriptions did a really good job. The way she used words to describe things was highly impressive and in fact she can always get a job writing scripts for commercials!" The competitors than one by one took the floor to explain why they chose their concoctions to entice the room full of judges. Let the tastings begin! Jennifer N agrees that "the competition was fierce, and I have to say I loved each one but thought the winning choices were spot on!" Next up was the announcement of the 3 top flavors who were all awarded trophies and Bravo Gelato giftcards. Drum roll please… Bronze goes to recently elited Paul R for his Blueberry Lavender submission, Silver to Sara A for Salted Caramel Strawberry, and finally the Gold. Congrats to Kenzi N for her winning flavor of Lemon Sugar Cookie!
As an added surprise, Christie and his team announced that all 6 Yelp flavors would be sold in all of their locations beginning the next day for a limited time! Sara A boasts, "I have told all of my friends to go to Bravo Gelato and taste my lovely flavor idea. It definitely makes me feel a tiny bit famous." Terry V couldn't believe all the suprises throughout the night. "For the finale, they created a peach bellini with prosecco!!!! I would have voted for that three times had it been on the form. It was amazing!" While perhaps Christian S wraps it nicely for us all,"The free pint of Lemon Almond ice cream and a coupon for a medium gelato to go were very much indicative of the attitude of the company that shined brightly the entire evening: Care about your product and the customer more than anything else, and you'll always leave them wanting for more." Mighty fine sentiment good sir and we couldn't agree more!
Major thanks are in order to the entire Bravo Gelato family. We must also give credit where it's due as all images are provided by our friends at McNeely, Piggott, and Fox Public Relations who also helped organize this fun event. For the entire scoop, check out these stellar reviews.
Although the Gelato Olympics Closing Ceremony has come come and gone, I can assure you this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship… Cheers!
Yelp Nashville Community Manager
