Seeing as how the brief taste of fall that we had last week is a memory and we are back to summer’s standard heat and oppressive humidity, I’d like to talk to y’all about frozen desserts.

Tuesday after work, I [...]]]>

It’s Thursday, so Daniele is back with a piece about vegetarian-friendly dessert purveyors La Divina Gelateria. -Leslie

Seeing as how the brief taste of fall that we had last week is a memory and we are back to summer’s standard heat and oppressive humidity, I’d like to talk to y’all about frozen desserts.

Tuesday after work, I stopped at the French Quarter outpost of La Divina Gelateria for a cool treat in the middle of my daily bicycle commute. Our gal Leslie and her husband were the ones who tipped me off to La Divina back when they only had their Magazine Street location. I cannot tell you how excited I was when they opened a shop in the French Quarter earlier this year. I am a downtown kinda gal, so not having to cross Canal Street to get a sweet, sweet gelato fix is my idea of urban convenience.

The service at the French Quarter location can be a little on the acerbic side, but has never crossed the line over to rude. And hey, I can’t blame them for having some attitude after dealing with the tomfoolery of the French Quarter denizens all day. (For example, when I was there I noticed a firm but polite “No bare feet, please” sign on the door.)

If you haven’t been to La Divina yet, you should definitely check it out. They’ve taken the traditional Italian desserts of gelato and sorbetto to a more modern and worldly place. Standards like chocolate gelato and lemon sorbetto are still available, but why bother with them when you can experience innovative flavors like peach-prosecco or horchata? Local ingredients are represented among selections as well with offerings such as Pontchatoula Strawberry-Balsamic and Turbo Dog-Chocolate. If you’re even the slightest bit inclined to adventuresome eating, peeping the complete list of all the flavors La Divina is sure to make your mouth water. The selection on any day will vary with the season (and the whims of the gelato makers, I suppose), so try not to get your heart set on any one flavor before you walk in the store. Think of it as a super-tasty game of chance!

La Divina Gelateria mojito sorbetto

You may recall it was in the 90’s on Tuesday afternoon, so the primary reason for my visit wasn’t gastronomic exploration so much as it was icy refreshment. I got a small cup of mojito sorbetto which was cold and refreshing for sure, though I couldn’t really detect any mint in it which is what makes a mojito a mojito, really. But I knew what I was getting into before I placed my order because customers are welcome to take a free taste before committing to a flavor. Ultimately, I just wanted that zip that citrus can provide to a dessert. And this sorbetto was certainly zippy without being weighed down by too much syrupy sweetness which is sometimes a problem for ice-based treats. For the less-than-five-minutes it took me to finish my serving, getting through another day of a seemingly endless summer didn’t seem all that hard.

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