Gnam Gnam means 'yum yum' - literally

The slate of gelato and sorbetto at Gnam Gnam is a perfect hedge against the summer heat. (photo by Brian Clarey).

Ice cream, as most everyone knows, is a frozen treat made from cream. Frozen custard, made with egg yolks, is more rich, higher in calories and served at lower temperatures, which aficionados say makes it taste better on the tongue. Frozen yogurt substitutes — you guessed it — yogurt for cream, giving the dish a pronounced tartness and, not inconsequentially, less fat. Gelato lives somewhere in the middle — lighter than ice cream and with less fat and sugar because it’s made with non-fat milk, more dense and flavorful because it has less air in the mixture, and more likely to be made on-premises because it has a shorter shelf life.

While you don’t necessarily need to know these things before visiting Gnam Gnam Gelato, a little knowledge can’t hurt, I figure.

Not that you need an excuse to stop by. Gnam Gnam features breakfast with pastries, sandwiches and a coffee bar; lunch with salads, soups, more sandwiches and even gyros; smoothies; teas; Italian sodas; even beer and wine. It’s bright and cheery and clean. And if a recent visit is any indication, there’s plenty of parking.

I hit the place just after lunch hour, when just one table was occupied by a pair of grandparents and their young charge, each enjoying a four-scoop bowl of the place’s signature item. That’s what I’m here for, too.

Beneath a glass display case, two rows of house-made gelato stays cool. It comes in bowls of four, six or eight scoops, and though the scoops are just a bit larger than a golf ball, though gelato has fewer calories than ice cream or frozen custard, though I’m actually pretty hungry and I love frozen treats like no others, I decide to stick with the “small” four-scoop portion.

The selections, which vary daily, all look fantastic, made with natural ingredients — there is a mint sprig in the mint chocolate chip batch, for instance — and in flavor combinations you won’t find at chain icecream joints. I settle on a scoop of caramel latte, one of banana-chocolate praline, one chocolate — of course — and a scoop of stracciatella.

What is stracciatella, you ask? It’s closest relative is chocolatechip ice cream, but really that’s like comparing Frank and Sylvester Stallone. Stracciatella is based on sweet-cream gelato, and instead of big chunks of the stuff, melted chocolate is drizzled during the cooling process, resulting in tiny, crackly shards of cocoa goodness throughout. It’s one of the reasons owners Selim Oztalay and Denise White opened the place, a true, European flavor not always available here in the states. They also regularly make nocciola (hazelnut), fior di latte (cheese) and zabaione (sweet wine custard), though you should call ahead to find out when these will next be available.

Another unique treat is spaghetti gelato, made by pressing vanilla gelato through a press to make it resemble spaghetti, then drenched in strawberry sauce. The kids, White tells me, love it.

Me, I’m immensely pleased with my chosen quatrain of flavors: sweet caramel, fresh banana, nutty praline and deep, dark chocolate. Gnam gnam translates loosely from Italian into “yum-yum,” and in that it is perhaps the most aptly named place in town.

wanna go?

Gnam Gnam Gelato 3712-K Lawndale Drive Greensboro

336.288.8008 www.gnamgnamgelato.com