Wonderful Italian Gelato & Pastas - Bulgarini Gelato [Thoughts + Pics]

My brother added on to my reservation…I’m still going with the chowpups, but wanted to make sure I took home gelato/sorbetto for the husband. That just means I’ll have to come back another time to run the full gamet with the husband. Not a bad sacrifice.

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Dry ice. Fo sho.

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I’ve driven home from the DTLA Salt N Straw to Brea with pints packed between ice packs and they were rock hard when I got home. About 40 minutes. If your drive is longer than an hour I’d go with dry ice.

Most Smart n final carry dry ice.

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I’ve got a local ice supply shop down the street on Imperial and Carmenita. $7 for 5 lbs. of dry ice…cheaper if we buy more. We go to them for all of our party and ice needs…cheaper than the store? I don’t know, but we like local businesses.

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That’s way cheaper than smart n final. If I lived down that way that would definitely be my spot too. Always support local.

I’m planning on doing a bang bang at Santa Anita and Bulgarini once the track reopens.

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Leo is straight up a magician. How he manages to produce amazing food out of his tiny kitchen is absurd.
We arrived early for our 7:30PM reservation, and the aromas emitting from the gelato shop were like walking into an Italian nonna’s kitchen. Sauces that have been cooking on the stove all day.
Leo had his house wine (a Zinfandel that he makes up in Lompoc) for the adults and blood orange juice for the kids…because the kids needed “wine,” too. How thoughtful and delicious. The Zin was a solid jack-of-all trades wine…good enough alone with it’s fruity notes and just a touch of light spices to make it interesting, but not too intense where it would not pair with the food.
The adults got the Chef’s tasting menu and the kids got the 3 pastas he served for dinner. The tasting menu included the 3 pastas and 2 supplemental courses Leo whipped up for the occasion. The tasting menu included gelato/sorbetto and wine pairings during the meal…Leo uses them as palate cleansers.
Before I go any further, I want to make note that the gelato shop is still open while dinner is being served. There’s going to be a steady flow of folks coming in for gelato, and a few coming in for dinner. The pacing of the meal is going to be based on the flow of traffic into the shop. Since it’s just Leo and one assistant, it’s not going to be like a traditional restaurant…and I’m perfectly okay with that…in fact, I enjoyed it more because I got to spend more time with my family. If the pacing may bother you, make sure you come with folks you can chat with. We were seated around 7:20PM and walked out the door a little before 11PM. We loved the fact that we got to converse with Leo on all kinds of subjects…soccer, vacations, his inspirations for cooking, etc. There was even a pasta-making demonstration. It really felt like you were having dinner at his home.


Lighting was dark, so photos are not quite as good as I would like.
We opened with a batch of fresh focaccia. Just like @Chowseeker1999 said…it was so good. Crispy, crunchy crust with a pillowy soft center and dressed simply with a great and herbaceous olive oil and salt. I’m pretty sure I inhaled 4 pieces before I realized it. The focaccia kept on arriving at our table as it disappeared as the evening progressed.

Then arrived the Ribollita Toscana, a traditional white bean soup with fresh garden vegetables and herbs with tomatoes. It was Leo’s grandmother’s recipe and he had it often growing up. In fact, we learned that he has not changed the recipe one bit. It was bright tomatoes with zucchini, eggplant, oregano, basil, carrots…and thickened with the white beans that had cooked down and broken during the cooking process. Super amazing if you dip the focaccia into the soup.

Akin to intermezzos, we were treated to gelato/sorbetto wine pairing tastings in between courses. Leo’s magnificent chocolate sorbet arrived…rich and pure dark chocolate…but a touch on the icy side because there’s no cream or milk. Studded with crunchy cocoa nibs to offer texture and enhance the chocolate even more. Then he made us sip our Zinfandel, and it brought out more flavors…all of a sudden, it got even more chocolate-y and then you can pick out flavors of fruit and spices within the chocolate. I’m not a chocolate fan, and I don’t pair it with wine even though I know it works. But this could change me.

The Pici All’Aglione came out next. Hand-rolled thick pasta with a garlic tomato sauce. The pasta was exceptional…super thick noodle with a bit of a bite that reminds me of Vietnamese banh canh noodle. The tomato sauce was fantastic with just a gentle, underlying garlic flavor. One of the chowpups said it could give Jame Enoteca’s angel hair a run for its money.

Pistachio gelato with French Bordeaux. We got to enjoy a few bites of it before the Bordeaux was poured in. With the wine, the pistachio was enhanced and tasted more like pistachio than it already did…and the jammy notes of the wine made it feel like a luxurious peanut butter and jelly.

Scallops with braised rapini…a chef’s tasting item. Perfectly seared scallop crusted with lemon zest and panko. The crispy lemony crust added texture and flavor to the perfectly cooked scallop and the braised rapini…I loved this dish.

Pappardelle al Cinghaile…wide egg pasta with braised marinated boar. This was the pasta Leo demonstrated to us at the beginning of our evening. He took us through pasta rolling, cutting, and drying before even cooking the noodles and why. This was most of our party’s favorite dish of the night. I found our rendition to be perfectly cooked and it was delicious…I love Leo’s Pappardelle noodle…it is silky, supple, and wonderful.

Gnocchi with fresh pesto. I have dreamt of this gnocchi for quite some time. I had this a while back, and knew it was the world’s most perfect gnocchi. Perfect potato dumplings that melt in your mouth…coated in pesto. Needless to say, I savored each one. At this point, the chowpups were starting to get full.

Seared Tuna with avocado and vinaigrette…the last of the Chef’s Tasting Menu courses. From the looks of it, it’s got soy, ginger, and sesame oil…but I was completely wrong because it was all Italian. The vinaigrette was olive oil, red wine vinegar, and chopped shallots. It was quite the way to end our meal. Palates awake after gnocchi dumplings. The tuna didn’t need a knife to cut, and the creamy avocado helped cut through the zip from the vinaigrette. Like all of the dishes I could have licked the plate clean.

Nectarine sorbet with Spanish Grenache…the nectarine sorbet is always lovely. Like eating pure fruit, adding the Grenache made it more nectarine-y and added something else to the mix that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. We loved it.

Pomegranate sorbet with sour/IPA beer…the final pairing for the night. Icy pomegranate sorbet becomes floral when the beer gets poured in. It was amazing. @J_L was so right about this one.

It was a fantastic evening. We had so much fun, and the food was so good. Thus far, this has been my favorite meal of the year…and I would be happy to do it, again.
We all learned so much during dinner. How Leo approaches food. How Leo gets the wine pairings and gelato/sorbetto together. That Leo spends 4 weeks of the summer in Italy…and he also takes some customers along for a culinary tour! :scream: I need to get on that wagon. The chowpups asked all kinds of questions during dinner, and Leo happily interacted with them.
My brother loved the chocolate sorbet so much that he mentioned to Leo that he wanted to take some home with him…so Leo made a fresh batch because he was running low. There are very few chefs in the world that are that attuned to their guests…and usually, you have to be a regular to get that kind of notice.
We took home the Bartlett pear, the Seco pear, the pomegranate and nectarine sorbetto. He had run out of my favorite pistachio during dinner.
The dry ice was perfect and helped get the goods home safe and sound. We even hit traffic on the way home, so it was super wise.
I need to plan my next visit back.
The Chef’s tasting menu runs $125 per person before tip. For our party of 5, we ran the bill to just a touch north of $500 including tip.
@paranoidgarliclover I did not see any biscotti during our visit. I did see the sign that he charges $8 per package.

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Thanks for the detailed review. As much as that intrigues me and sounds delicious, I can not commit 3:40 + drive for dinner :frowning:

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When Leo hosts, it is a meal like no other in SoCal.

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I’m reading this outside of Bulgarini eating some Pici All’aglione and focaccia bread. ( had Pistachio gelato for appetizer)
I’m planning to have more gelato for dessert.

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I’m guessing he hails from Tuscany

Indeed he does. Also spent time in Rome before coming here.

Organize our next FTC meetup there!

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fify

At the shop or in Italy??? The latter might actually quite a decent # of folks on here willing to do that…

@attran99: that looks and sounds magnificent!!! The scallops look esp good…

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@PorkyBelly @J_L I’m game to try if this venture is more successful than the last time someone attempted this challenge.
@paranoidgarliclover The scallop was indeed amazing…the oldest chowpup was seated next to me and gazed longingly at it as it was delivered. I took pity on him and shared a quarter of it. He said it was amazing and savored his portion slowly.

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Did I just have some fresh peach, Bosc pear, and roasted hazelnut? Or did I just have some gelato? :thinking:

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Hi @attran99,

Yay! So glad you got to try a nice tasting with Leo! Isn’t it wonderful? :blush:

If you can believe it, his 6-hour stewed Meat Sauce - Tagliatelle al Sugo di Carne - is even better. :wink: I love his Spaghettini al Ripasata (the wonderful Tomato, Garlic & Herbs Sauce) as well.

Love those wine & gelato pairings! They’re amazing how the flavors transform before and after he pours the wines.

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Anyone care to join me for an impromptu FTC meetup tomorrow (Friday) night at 8:00? Thanks to a coincidence of factors, my night freed up, so I decided to have pasta & gelato!

It’ll just be me solo - gonna order a couple things a la carte and go from there. I called to make sure a la carte would be offered since I wasn’t sure if weekends were reserved for tasting menus. The lady I spoke with recommended I make a reservation, so I can always call back to add folks!

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Quick dinner/gelato report from last week’s visit - ordered 2 pastas, gnocchi w/ pesto and pici all’aglione. Didn’t get a pic of the pici, but here’s the gnocchi. As others have said, the gnocchi were great plump clouds with just enough chew to them. The pesto was delicious but a bit oily, which I think shows up in the pic, a little layer of oil. I think others’ pics have shown something similar, so I guess it’s just Leo’s style.

The pici was fantastic with big bright tomato flavor and the pasta was perfectly al dente. The only problem was there wasn’t that much of the actual noodle - there was quite a bit sauce left over! A couple there ordered the pici as well, but their portion looked a bit larger, with a better proportion of noodle to sauce. Ah well.

Finished dinner off with gelato - chocolate chip on top, hazelnut on bottom in the pic. They’d run out of pistachio earlier in the day, which was too bad, but damn, that hazelnut! The toastiness was amazing. The chocolate chip was also great - the bitter chunks of chocolate going so nicely with the sweet cream.

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did you get some focaccia bread? i usually get that to wipe up all the sauce.

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