A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of meeting J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Managing Editor from Serious Eats, the Time Magazine fawned over and James Beard Foundation award winning food blog. Soon thereafter Kenji had a moment with Dojo’s Cream Cheese Gelato and Lemongrass Sorbetto. Thanks for the photos and love Kenji and Serious Eats. 

The editors of Dessert Professional magazine are proud to honor our annual Top Ten Frozen Dessert Retailers of America. This award is presented to businesses that offer exceptional frozen desserts served in a unique, memorable environment….The list includes three traditional ice cream shops, three gelato shops, one frozen custard retailer, one frozen pop shop, one shave ice store, and a non-dairy frozen dessert business. While some are large and some small, they all share a devotion to the craft of making exceptional frozen desserts, and serving them with pride. Congratulations to all ten.

Fellow winners include Il Laboratorio del Gelato in NYC, the Franklin Fountain in Philadelphia, Lula’s Sweet Apothecary in NYC, Popbar in NYC, The Dairy Godmother in Alexandria, Bonnie Brae Ice Cream in Denver, Matsumoto Shave Ice in Haleiwa, Paciugo Gelato in Dallas, and Mitchell’s Ice Cream in San Francisco.

Congratulations to all of our brothers and sisters in ice cream.

Dojo Cart will again be appearing at this year’s totally fun Over-the-Rhine Summer Celebration.  The event starts with a 5k run/walk around Over-the-Rhine on Saturday morning and then transforms into one hell of a block party with local art, community and food vendors along with live music and brews. Par-tay!  All proceeds benefit the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce. For more details check out www.gootr.org. See you there?

The 2011 Central Ohio River Valley Food Guide has just been published and Dojo Gelato is again proud to be a sponsor for this invaluable local food resource.

The Central Ohio River Valley Local Foods Initiative is a grassroots effort to educate our community about the value of locally and sustainably grown food, as well as to connect local community members with local growers/farmers and markets.   – CORV Mission Statement

The CORV guide has always been a great resource for area Farmers’ Market locations, restaurants that source locally, seasonal harvest guides and farms. For more information visit CORV’s website at www.eatlocalcorv.org.

Best part? Dojo has free copies available of the 2011 guide at our store!

Sour Amarena Cherry + Valrhona Alpaco Dark Chocolate Stracciatella

This week (March 15th – 20th) Dojo Gelato will be donating a portion of all proceeds to Doctors Without Borders for relief efforts for earthquake and tsunami victims of Japan.

As of March 16th, the Japanese National Police Agency has officially confirmed “4,314 deaths, 2,282 injured and 8,606 people missing. Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water.”

Beyond visiting Dojo Gelato this weekend to show your support for our brothers and sisters in Japan, you can also visit Charity Navigator to discover more ways to help with the massive relief efforts now underway.

We’re all in this together.

A tip of our scoops to City Beat for naming Dojo Gelato as one of their Best Bites of 2010. We always appreciate when our hard work and dedication to making you the freshest and most delicious gelati in Cincinnati are recognized.

While there were certainly amazing, savory bites that I experienced in 2010, after careful contemplation I have decided that my best bite of the year occurred on a sunny October afternoon at Findlay Market.

After shopping for the usual produce and meats, I decided to treat myself at Dojo Gelato (137 Elder St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-328-9000). In the years since I lived in Bologna, Italy, I have been searching for an authentic gelato. Dojo Gelato produces the most dense yet creamy gelato that I’ve had since I returned to America.

Gelato is made by using more milk and less cream than American-style ice cream and it’s marked by intense flavor. Dojo Gelato loves to create unexpected flavor profiles — I’ve even had guacamole gelato there! And they use fresh, seasonal ingredients in their creations.

On that October day I had a two-scoop combo of Vietnamese [Coffee] and Pumpkin. The vanilla oozed fresh vanilla bean flavor which, when combined with the spicy fresh pumpkin, made for the absolute perfect taste sensation. Autumn was exemplified in that refreshing, smooth bite, and it was completely satisfying and memorable. (Bill Hatfield)

Now please excuse us while we treat ourselves too with a celebratory double dip of our good stuff…

Dojo Gelato gift cards are available in store or online from Paypal! Gift cards are mailed to the person(s) you specify in the shipping address during checkout. You can also include a gift card message if you would like for us to include a handwritten note to the recipient. Gift cards are mailed priority from the United States Postal Service with an estimated delivery time of 2-3 days. You can purchase gift cards online here or in person at Dojo Gelato. 

Best part? Gift cards can be used for anything at our store, from pints of fresh hand packed gelati all the way to special event catering with our gelato cart.

Happy holidays!

Your credit card will be securely processed by PayPal, a secure online payment processor. Questions? Call Dojo at  (513) 328-9000 or by email at dojo@dojogelato.com

The Holiday Crafty Supermarket will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010, at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center. We’ll have more than 50 crafters, a live DJ from PROJECTMILL and delicious food from Dojo Gelato, Cafe de Wheels, Sweet Peace Bakery, La Terza Coffee and Picnic and  Pantry.

Shopping for your holiday gifts at the mall and big box stores is lame. Go local and support independent small businesses.

Not only will Dojo Cart be at the Crafty Supermarket this Saturday, we also will be taking part in BuyCincy’s annual Cincinnati Unchained promotion. A portion of Dojo sales on November 20th will be donated to the Freestore Foodbank as part of the Unchained event.

Hurray for the holidays!