Venchi Chocolate Bleecker St — Attraction in New York

3/18/2023, Saturday: I'd recommend the large cone of gelato with 3 flavors of their Pistachio, Hazelnut, and either Cremino (hazelnut w/ chocolate spread), or Aztec 82% cocoa vegan dark chocolate, at this Venchi on Bleecker St west of 6th ave in NYC. Venchi, which is all over Italy, founded in year 1878 has amazing gelato ice cream and dark chocolate from Italy, and even has a booklet with all the ingredients in every flavor, and lists where some of their ingredients are from. The Pistachio is that classic natural green color and from the famous Bronte, Sicily Italy. The pistachio, hazelnut, and their popular cremino flavor are all made without heavy cream with just whole local dairy milk. The 82% Aztec dark chocolate has a very strong unique bitter flavor that is delicious and is without any dairy. I sometimes take the cone, or take the cone away in my own stainless steel container (similar to the container they dish the gelato out of), for convenience to keep it cold from melting and save for later. 3/20/2023, Monday: Large cone of 3 flavors with the pistachio from Bronte Sicily, hazelnut from Piedmont Italy, and Aztec 82% vegan dark chocolate, with 2 very dark chocolate squares added, and a perfectly made cone after one broke because the dark chocolate was so dense. Flavor perfect, and nice portion size (larger than a recent Gelateria...

Despite the excellent overall quality at Venchi, we had a terrible experience with a staff member named Chris during our last visit. We were a party of eight and stopped by for a quick treat a few days ago.

My cousin, a young lady, ordered a gelato and took a small bite. She noticed something off about the taste and immediately let Chris know and asked for a replacement.

Chris initially said yes, but upon taking another look at my cousin, changed his mind and dismissed our request despite her being perfectly polite, considerate, and well-mannered. Apparently, because she is not a child, she doesn't get a replacement.

This was not an unreasonable request - it was literally one small gelato cup and she took a very small bite out if it, it's not like she finished the entire thing and asked for a replacement.

Chris did not help, did not see any issue in being dismissive, and started getting rude to my other cousin, her brother. Before the matter could escalate, we left the gelato cup on the counter and our entire party left. This was of course, after we paid.

A bit of understanding goes a long way. Not sure if he was having a bad day, but please don't take it out on loyal customers who were trying to enjoy a summer day at your...

I was very intrigued what happens to the space previously occupied by Grom. The whole area once known for great Italian food and culture has been inundated by The NYU virus and educational migrants with their chicken fingers culture. I like gelato and chocolate so I was impressed by the 70%less sugar leveled chocolate squares which did not taste like plastic and were very good but 11.00. 1/4 pound is robbery and 5.95 for a baby cone while tasty is also robbery but such is post pandemic pre 4th wave Covid LivingSocial these days. My problem was the complete lack of organization of the. Buying process. It does not say order here, the signage is confusing and the servers are working extremely hard to get a scoop out of the tray and on the cone. They work very hard to get one scoop. It would go way faster if they did not have people standing around asking to taste while people are waiting for. Orders. The management needs to get a process in place. I was waiting to get my cone and this drunk fraternity boy and his blonde date just pushed me out of the way instead of going behind. I had to say hey I ain’t next … go over there. Bad planning on part of the store. It’s good dessert but they need to fix the...