Grom nom nom

One of my only regrets about the week I spent in Italy during my junior year in college is not consuming enough gelato. While I made my way around Florence, Venice, and Rome, I passed stand after stand displaying the pale, creamy whorls of Italian ice cream, but probably only bought a cupful once. Whether it was because I was a broke student or because I just wasn't that interested, I don't remember. All I know is that now, good gelato is hard to find.

Enter Grom. AT and I came out of a class on Portugese cheeses at Murray's Cheese happily full of wine, bread, nuts, dried fruit, and the controlled spoilage of milk, but still craving something sweet. Less than a block away, Grom had its doors wide open. We chose two flavors to split; Cassata siciliana, a ricotta-based gelato speckled with candied citron, was quite delightful, but it was the nutty, buttery, never-tasted-pistachio-like-this-pistachio that won my heart. Without the characteristic neon glow and artificial almond flavor of most pistachio ice creams, Grom's version tasted like the essence of the bright green nut amplified, with a smooth, rich, earthy flavor. I can never eat regular pistachio ice cream again.