Gelato World Tour at Millennium Park through tomorrow

I hope this is not too late and that someone(s) can take advantage of this post, but a gelato competition - Gelato World Tour - is at Millenium Park this weekend (Friday through Sunday - May 29). I went today and though we were greeted with what appeared to be long lines, we never waited more than 10 minutes to taste any gelato and sometimes didn't even wait a minute.

There were 16 competitors and for $10 you get 8 tickets (1 ticket for a tiny cone, 2 for a cup). My understanding from talking to a couple of the competitors is that the winner gets a trip to Italy -- not bad. And at $10, I thought it was a fantastic deal.

Most important is that the gelato I tasted today was better than any I've tasted in Chicago and some of the best I've ever tasted. No ice crystals, proper texture -- these guys are very serious about their gelatos. No, not all of it was up to par. A couple were garnished and I found that once you dug below the garnish, flavors were lacking. But there was an amazing pistachio, an impressive saffron-pistachio with candied lemon peel, black seasame with stracciatella and pomegranate molasses (perhaps my favorite), whiskey, chocolate-bourbon with maple pecans, and even a gelato from Black Dog featuring saffron, curry, ginger, peanuts, honey, coconuts and cashews that I thought was better than any gelato I had previous had at Black Dog (I loved, my sister and another friend found the flavors, particularly the curry, too aggressive), and more. A couple of other vendors (including Eataly) are there handing out free samples of their own gelato.

I don't know whether they have the same competitors each day but I was really blown away by what I tasted today, and I managed to taste a lot in less than an hour. If you can find the time to make it down there tomorrow, and you love gelato anywhere close to as much as I do, you will want to find your way to Millennium Park.

Here are more details: http://gelatoworldtour.com/