Roasted chestnuts at Bulgarini Gelato this Saturday
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Chestnuts roasting on an open fire may be a Bing Crosby-era holiday favorite, but unless you roast the nuts yourself, they’re not so easy to come by.
This Saturday afternoon, however, you can find the holiday treat and pick up some of the city’s best gelato at the same time. Leo Bulgarini will be roasting chestnuts (yes, over an open fire, ‘like they do on the streets in Rome,’ he says) at Bulgarini Gelato, his Altadena gelato shop, from 4 to 8 p.m.
He’ll even give you a free cup of cappuccino if you buy some.
While you’re there, you might consider trying a scoop of his gelato too. Current flavors include persimmon, chocolate-almond, vanilla with cacao nibs, pumpkin and coffee-cream with anise; he and crew are also serving up papaya sorbet and coffee granita. In addition, Bulgarini is making, you guessed it, chestnut gelato.
Read more from the Times archives on Leo and wife Elizabeth’s gelato operation. And check out the recent story by Times Food Editor Russ Parsons on the comeback of California chestnuts. Bulgarini’s chestnuts, however, are from Avellino, Italy, a small mountain town 50 kilometers east of Mt. Vesuvius. What did you expect? The man brings pistachios (for his awesome pistachio gelato) home from his native Italy in his suitcase.
Hot roasted chestnuts, wrapped in a paper cone, $4 at Bulgarini Gelato, 749 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena. (626) 791-6174; www.bulgarinigelato.com. Saturday, Dec. 20, 4 to 8 p.m.
-- Amy Scattergood
