If you have thought about going back to school, why not indulge your sweet tooth as well? Carpigiani University in Bologna, Italy is teaching students from around the world the secrets to making great gelato. The school is run by the leading maker of gelato machines and their hope is to spread this Italian dessert across the globe.

Italians are estimated to eat around 14 pounds of gelato a year, choosing from over 600 different flavors. One of the more interesting facts about gelato is that has less sugar and uses only half the butter of “American” ice cream.

At Mio Gelato, we keep the legacy of gelato going strong by offering inventive and traditional flavors made with only the freshest locally-sourced ingredients. With fresh batches made daily, we agree that “imagination is the most important ingredient of all” when making delicious gelato.

Mio Gelato recently started to serve traditional, Italian-style pizza at their Bridgeport Village location. By bringing in Jeremy Daniels, Mio Gelato adds a rising star from Portland’s culinary community to create authentic, delicious and innovative pizza.

Daniels brings a lifetime of experience cooking and learning about food.  He picked up cooking as a child and has always seen food as a way to connect with people.  He chose cooking as a career path and brings 8 years of formal kitchen experience to Mio Gelato.  He cooked at Saucebox in downtown Portland for two years and then cooked at Nostrana for 4 years where he had the privilege of working over a wood fire oven.

Jeremy is currently responsible for the pizza creation and production at the Bridgeport Village location.  He also is in charge of hiring and training the kitchen staff and creating and tweaking the restaurant’s recipes.  Jeremy makes nearly everything from scratch, including the dough, sauce, and sausage.  He even pulls his own mozzarella from curds.  Every Neapolitan-style, artisan pizza is hand-stretched to order and is cooked in our state of the art pizza oven.

Come on down to Mio Gelato’s Bridgeport Village location for a taste of Italy that remains firmly rooted in the Pacific Northwest by offering the freshest local ingredients.

The new movie ‘Eat Pray Love’ may star Julia Roberts, but it also features one of our favorite desserts. As the main character travels through Italy, she falls in love with the cuisine including fine food, wine, and of course gelato.

This heart-warming movie is a tale of discovery as she travels through Italy, Indonesia, and India to find the finer things in life.

The movie is out this Friday July 13th. Stop by our Bridgeport Village location for dinner and a movie. With our traditional-style pizza, beer or wine, and our delicious gelato, it can make for the perfect evening out.

“I want to go someplace where I can marvel at something: language, gelato, spaghetti” – Julia Roberts

Free Fan Friday has everything to do with FLAVOR! We know you guys love our gelato and we want to put your gelato knowledge to the test.

Every Thursday, we will feature a clue about one of our delicious gelato or sorbetto flavors. The Facebook fans or Twitter followers that guess the flavor correctly will have a chance to win a scoop of the stuff for free!

The weekly winner is announced each Friday, so you can enjoy your gelato over the weekend!

Put your thinking caps on Portland and start doing some research, you never know which flavor will be our Free Fan Friday Flavor of the week.

In order to participate just jump over to our Facebook page and comment with your best guess at our weekly flavor or simply Tweet us your answer.

Good Luck and happy FRIDAY!
Team Mio

Whether you love eating our delicious gelato or sipping on our great coffee, our customer loyalty punchcards are perfect for you. Pick one up the next time you are in any Mio Gelato location and you can earn a free gelato or coffee.

After you enjoy 10 gelatos, you will receive one free. The same goes for coffee drinks, after you buy 10, you will receive one 12 oz. latte (or equivalent) free.

Just our way of saying ‘Thanks’ to all our loyal customers.

Melissa Kronenthal wrote a wonderful article in the Seattle Times last week about the wonders of gelato. She first experienced the tasty treat while on an Italian vacation and now is completely hooked.

Throughout her travels, she found she was not alone. Once you first taste this Italian dessert, there seems to be no turning back! She even talks about how it can be delicious for breakfast. We agree, it sure beats the continental breakfast served at most hotels.

“I’ve never met a single person who went to Italy and didn’t come back raving about gelato. Even people who don’t normally eat ice cream seem to fall under its spell” – Melissa Kronenthal, Seattle Times

Do you remember your first time tasting gelato? We would love to hear your story!

What can beat a one dollar gelato on a hot summer day?

This Tuesday, July 27, Mio Gelato celebrates its 7th anniversary by offering every scoop of gelato for just $1.

Mio Gelato was founded in July 2003 and wants to celebrate its anniversary by giving back to its great customers. To join in the festivities, stop into any Mio Gelato location during normal business hours on July 27th.

Mio Gelato is an authentic Italian gelateria and espresso bar in Portland, Oregon, featuring authentic Italian gelato and sorbetto hand-made in small batches daily, as well as house made panini and soup, Illy coffee, and Italian-style rich and creamy hot chocolate. Mio Gelato also has local beer and wine offerings at affordable prices.  Bob Lightman opened Mio Gelato in Portland’s Pearl District neighborhood to provide an authentic Italian experience for both visitors and locals and has now expanded with three additional locations.

Each hand-crafted batch of gelato is flavored with the highest quality local and international ingredients – from local Oregon marionberries to Italian chocolate and pistachios. Bob controls the entire process — from farm to dish — to craft small batches of fresh gelato daily. Committed to local and seasonal ingredients, Bob makes gelato the traditional way beginning with his own homemade bases made from the finest hormone-free local milk and freshest ingredients.

Locations:
•    Pearl District: 25 NW 11th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209: 503-226-8002
•    Irvington Corner: 1517 NE Brazee Street, Portland, OR 97212: 503-288-4800
•    Northwest Portland: 838 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland, OR 97210; 503-241-9300
•    Bridgeport: 7291 SW Bridgeport Rd. Tigard, OR 97224; 503.670.1700

Last weekend, Mio Gelato passed the 1,000 fan mark on Facebook. We wanted to take this time to say ‘thank you’ to our great online community for making this possible. We appreciate the opportunity to get to know you better and give away some of our stellar gelato!

Whether it is through the blog, on Facebook, or on Twitter, we value  having conversations with our customers and keeping you guys updated on our latest and greatest.

Stay tuned for our weekly Free Fan Friday Flavor of the Week and other great promotions!

Thanks again for making Mio Gelato your gelato shop of choice!

Team Mio

The wonderful food blog Eater PDX recently wrote about Portland Eats Out. This new “dining club” will allow diners to receive 15% off participating restaurants during the slower nights of the week.

By purchasing a yearly membership, you can eat till your heart’s content at the many wonderful culinary destinations around Portland. One of the best aspects about this club is that 10% of your membership fee will go to the Oregon Food Bank to help fight hunger.

While Mio Gelato will not be part of Portland Eats Out, we want to know your thoughts – Would you join a diner’s club for the best tastes of PDX?

Summer has come roaring into Portland with temperatures soaring into the 90s.  What better way to cool off than with a refreshing scoop (or two) of gelato and visiting one of our beautiful local parks or pools?

Fox 12 wrote an article about how Portland parks make a wonderful place to visit when the mercury is rising. Mio Gelato has locations right near many of Portland’s famed parks and fountains.

Our Pearl District location is near Jamison Square, which is a lovely place to dip your feet into cool cascading water. If you are looking to swim, Grant Pool can be the perfect choice after visiting our Irvington location.

Where is your favorite spot to beat the heat in Portland?