I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Teo's

We once had the good fortune of living in Italy, and there are times we miss it terribly. What is it we miss, you ask? The emasculated, gelled-hair twenty-something guys on their mopeds smoking cigarettes and pleading on the cell phones with their mothers to let them stay out just another hour so they can sit around the fountain in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere and butcher Nirvana/Bob Marley songs on an acoustic guitar? Not so much.

Is it the amazing pasta and pizza, the daily three-hour siestas and the glory of the Amalfi Coast? Yea, kinda. But what we really miss is the gelato. Mmmm, gelato.

That's why whenever we stumble upon a new gelaterria in town, we feel compelled to share it with everyone we know. Of course, we've known about this place for some time but are just now getting around to sharing it becuase we didn't want the lines to get too long.

But enough build-up. The place of which we speak is Teo's on West 38th, in the 26 Doors Shopping Center. We've been enjoying owner Matt Lee's establishment since 2004, when they changed the name from Babbo's. While we usually stick to the amazingly tasty gelato - of which they make a few dozen flavors daily - the store also sells specialty Italian items such as chocolate-dipped figs and espresso beans. And, apparently, they also have breakfast tacos in the morning delivered from Taco Deli. Maybe you can confirm, as we don't live up that way and have a personal vendetta against breakfast tacos. The shop is clean and comfortable, offering a nice venue for an after dinner-sweet with a date or some studying using their free WiFi. Then there's the porch. Whether it's summer or winter, the porch is perfect. The shade provided in the summer is a nice respite from the brutal heat, but on cold weather days they have you covered as well with their wonderful fireplace burning at the south end of the patio.

But, really, it's all about the gelato. Last night we couldn't decide: did we want something fruity and refreshing, or did we want something more rich and sumptuous? Decisions, decisions. We ended up trying about eight different flavors while we had an ice conversation with the friendly counter girl. We apologized for our vacillations, but she insisted that the beauty of going to get gelato was in trying them all. What a dear. We ended up settling on BOTH. We got a medium strawberry & lemon combo for the short-term, and since we knew we'd be craving more the second we got back home, we picked up a to-go pint of the peanut butter/Nutella. The strong fruit flavors of the strawberry/lemon combo left us walking on air and gave us that perfect jolt of sweet-tarty goodness we were looking for.

Then we got home. We intended to put the peanut butter/Nutella immediately into the freezer (it should last about 4-5 days), but we couldn't resist. We broke out a spoon, plopped down on the couch to watch a little Colbert Report, and next thing you know we looked like the Gerber Baby, our giddy smiles covered in the Italian goodness. Grazie, Teo's. See you soon. Real soon.

Teo's
1206 W. 38th. St. [map]
Mon-Thurs: 7am-10pm
Fri: 7am-Midnight
Sat: 8am-Midnight
Sun: 9am-10pm

(Yo, Teo's, would it kill you to have slightly more uniform hours? We already have enough crap to remember.)