It seems that Colonel Mustard and his dreaded lead pipe has killed the gelato spirits in my freezer. Let me explain: someone has been stealing and eating large quantities of Ciao Bella (particularly the indulgently bold Blackberry Cabernet) out of my freezer, and I’m treating this unfathomable crime like a game of Clue. This is a “whodunit” mystery on a whole different level. I needed to get to the bottom of this.

Fortunately, my mystery was fairly simple to solve. Once I pulled out my imaginary magnifying glass, it was plainly obvious who was stealing the Ciao Bella in the kitchen with the greedy hands. I have two vicious guard dogs that patrol my house, and for their privacy we’ll refer to them as “Mike” and “Jill.” Mike and Jill are actually two 25-pound furry spitfires who bark their cute heads off anytime someone walks through the door. So, it was impossible for an intruder to have stolen my sorbet.

That’s when I narrowed my search down to close friends and family friends. With the aforementioned dog situation, we don’t invite too many people over the house. But, which “close friend” could commit such a horrible crime and eat my precious Ciao Bella? I found my answer to that question the next morning. My sister’s boyfriend, who for his privacy we’ll refer to as “Henry,” had been over the previous night. When I went to snack on the wine-inspired frozen treat, the above picture is what I discovered. A thief who doesn’t spend the time to destroy his own evidence? Shameful. I then realized that Henry had been stealing and eating my Ciao Bella all along, and had eaten 7/8 of a pint of Blackberry Cabernet the night before. He will not soon be forgiven, and I’m holding my sister accountable as an accomplice.

The point of this horror story is to take precaution when you’re storing our gelatos and sorbets. Make sure there aren’t any especially greedy hands in the kitchen, and do your best to hide your favorite like I’m now doing. Poor Henry is now on my bad side (Mike and Jill don’t like him much either), but I think he can make it up to me with a couple free pints of Ciao Bella.

The Gelatomobile was casting delicious and colorful shadows all over the Ciao Bella fans on the West Coast, sometimes quite literally (for picute of the van, see blog post “Sunny in Seattle.”) The funniest moment of the second half of West Coast tour was when the “van that can’t be missed” literally cast its shadow. On a blaringly Sunny day, my partner gazed out the passenger side window and his eyes bulged with confusion. There was a bright pink car driving next to us. To think, we had competition as the most colorful car on the road! Suddenly, the car pulled ahead and turned white. We realized the Sun reflected the pink off of our truck onto the white car. We thought we were going to die laughing. Sometimes, it’s the smallest things that make you laugh.

Besides the color confusion, we had a great time serving new and loyal Ciao Bella Gelato fans. We met so many great frozen treat lovers at Whole Foods Capitola, Whole Foods Santa Cruz, New Leaf Santa Cruz, and Whole Foods Cupertino who were all friendly and loving the free Ciao Bella! In fact, we handed out 170 samples in the first 30 minutes at Whole Foods Cupertino, which we guess is some type of record, but who keeps count when you’re talking with such great customers. Just take a look at the line in the picture, that was short compared to what we normally had!

Sometimes our customers are voracious, but nothing quite like we encountered at the first birthday party of Whole Foods Capitola. We served our first wolf! Yes, that’s actually a wolf, whose owner fed him our tantalizing blood orange sorbet. It definitely cooled that wolf off!

We also had a great time at Whole Foods Santa Cruz celebrating the Harbor to Harbor race, where there were free hot dogs in addition to refreshing sorbet and all natural gelato from Ciao Bella. Personally, a scoop of blood orange sorbet beats a hot dog any day.

The West Coast tour is off this week, but we’ll be in Southern California soon! Check the blog calendar to see where the Ciao Bella van is heading next!

In my eyes, it’s a fairly bold statement to say that you are throwing the ultimate summertime party. Everyone’s been to some amazing parties during the summer, but what could make this the ultimate?

Let’s run down the checklist:

• Good people – 1000+ guests looking to have a great time [check]
• Good music – a Z100 DJ along with NYC’s cover band The Tremors [check]
• Good entertainment – a sea lion feeding to kick off the evening [check]
• Good food – Kat’s Deli serving up pastrami sandwiches and Peanut Butter & Co providing sweet treats [check]
• Ciao Bella! – well that’s just the icing on my proverbial party cake [CHECK]

The Ultimate Summertime Party has been held at the Central Park Zoo every summer for the past 26 years.  The proceeds benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society which funds research for the prevention, treatment and cure of this disease.  It attracts a variety of great sponsors such as News Corporation, Hard Rock Cafe, Samuel Adams, D’Agostino’s and many more.

Instead of talking more about the event, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.