Gelateria Primavera, Melbourne CBD by Bilby Blue

Various sources had been giving us good reports about Gelateria Primavera, so it had been on our radar for quite a while. However since Benny and I are rarely in the CBD at the same time, in the end we had separate solo visits, within the same week.

Close to the Princess Theatre, Gelateria Primavera is at the front entrance of the Spring Street Grocer. The gelato menu – handwritten on brown paper – changes daily, with around 16 flavours including dairy free sorbets. All the gelati is made fresh each day by Primavera’s two gelati chefs from seasonal natural ingredients, with no additives, and is stored in shiny round pozzetti tubs inset into the red marble counter top. Cold pressed juices are also available – so you can combine a healthy fruit or vegie juice with your gelato.

Gelateria Primavera, cardamon and roasted pistachio, rose lassi, gelato

Cardamom and roasted pistachio with rose lassi gelati

The day I visited was a public holiday and the menu was festooned with a number of sticky notes – “none left”, “all gone”, “in the works”, “maybe next time” – proclaiming that those flavours had run out, even though it was only late morning. But there were still plenty of options left. When Benny visited at the same time on a regular weekday all the flavours of the day were still available.

The menu ranges from the traditional – chocolate, pistachio, fior de latte – to some rather innovative and unusual flavours. Sizes are small (one flavour), medium (one to three flavours) or large (one to four flavours), and tubs are also available. Serves come in cups or cones – but the cones were pale flat bottomed affairs, not at all like our preferred waffle cones. We were disappointed – in our opinion the crunch and mouth feel of a crisp waffle cone is an essential element of the gelato experience.

Both of us (independently) opted for cups, and the more off-beat flavours.

My choices were cardamom and roasted pistachio, paired with rose lassi (see first pic). The spice in the first was very mild, and I suspect came from green cardamom pods rather than the peppery ground spice that goes into my Christmas gingerbread. The second was pink, creamy and quite strongly perfumed, but avoided being overly sweet – and the flavour lingered wonderfully with me for quite some time. It was a great match.

Gelateria Primavera, raspberry and creme fraiche, coconut acai and cashew, gelato

Benny’s raspberry and crème fraiche lived up to Primavera’s strong reputation – smooth and very creamy with a lovely fresh raspberry flavour. Unfortunately, his second choice of coconut, acai and cashew did not attain the same heights. He was hoping for a strong coconut flavour to complement the raspberry, however the coconut was quite muted with the main identifiable element of the gelato being a few large pieces of cashew. Benny admitted that he is not familiar with the taste of the acai berry so maybe it provided the dominant flavour. So while it was quite nice, it was not what was expected.

Primavera has the most expensive gelato we have tasted so far on our quest – $7.20 for a medium (two flavours). Prior to this, prices have ranged between $5.50 and $6.80.

There isn’t much space for lingering – just one small table and a couple of chairs at a short bench.