press
Oh, nuts!
Has Mill Valley's organic gelateria gone nuts? One day it's Cici, the next day it's Noci.
Liana Orlandi, who owns Noci with her husband, Michael, says they were disappointed to discover that they were not able to trademark the name. Cici was the nickname of Michael's Italian grandmother Cecilia,
They recently renamed the gelateria Noci, which means "nuts" in Italian, since many of their gelatos are nut based. Noci uses Straus Farms dairy products in all of its dairy-based gelatos, and in its house-made cones. And, Noci has also recently added Straus organic soft-serve organic and fat-free frozen yogurt.
Noci is at 17 East Blithedale Ave. in Mill Valley. Call 388-2423 or go to www.gelateriacici.com or www.nocigelato.com
Marin IJ
Anna Haight
http://www.marinij.com/ci_15255674?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com
http://media.modernluxury.com/digital.php?e=BBSF
Street Treats
By Schuyler Sokolow
CIAO, GELATO: A Mill Valley couple is reinventing the wheel with Gelateria Cici. Liana and Michael Orlandi put their own twist on the Italian frozen treat tradition by creating artisanal flavors based on local, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients-but what makes their gelato even more special is the presentation: vintage bicycles with coolers attached. The couple will work with caterers to develop custom flavors to fit a menu or theme. “Brides shouldn’t be afraid to ask to have their fantasy flavors made for their event,” says Liana.
http://www.lauriearons.blogspot.com/
Northern California Dreaming - Sarah & Graham
By Laurie Arons
“My Favorite Detail? I loved the gelato bike from Cici Gelato that rolled in during the late night dancing. Guests were offered a choice of 2 sorbets and 2 gelatos that were homemade from local ingredients. Delicious!”
Edible Marin & Wine Country - Summer 2009
Sweet tales from the ice cream trail
By Maria Helm Sinskey
North of San Francisco, just over the Golden Gate Bridge, life becomes slower and less condensed as the city feathers into the suburbs and farmlands of Marin, Sonoma and Napa. Cows replace cars and the jolting noise of urban living softens into birdsong. Here is where you’ll find a plethora of local gelato and ice cream producers that inspire devotion and sometimes cult-like followings. From Cici Gelateria in Mill Valley to Downtown Creamery and Bakery in Healdsburg, ice cream and gelato makers are spinning the abundance of Northern California’s dairy and egg farms into local, sustainable and, in many instances, certified organic treats. You will find them in innovative flavors like Rose and Lavender Honey, as well as the classic best sellers Chocolate and Vanilla.
I set out one weekend to discover what makes this group of scoop shop owners, pint producers and pastry chefs tick. The ice cream trail led me down picturesque, rural back roads I never knew existed. I returned home with a full belly and my vision of one of the most beautiful regions of California restored. Every ice cream maker I visited or spoke with made products of exceptional quality. All spoke about the happi- ness and peace they found in their craft. All actively sought ways to give back to the community and support the envi- ronment. At the end of this assignment, I felt warm, fuzzy and stuffed, and my daughters who had accompanied me
on portions of this quest had had enough ice cream to last a good long while. It was nice to tuck them into bed with the feeling that, in this world of constant change, happiness can be found in a cone or a cup.
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chapter 3—the independents
cici gelateria
This sleek, modern temple, with gleaming silver tins piled high with colorful gelato, is the passion of Michael Orlandi and his wife Liana Davis. Delegates to Slow Food’s Terra Madre in 2008, they’re fanatical about using the finest local and organic ingredients. Michael’s father hand cuts fruit from local farmers and customers with overloaded fruit trees, readying them for Michael, who spins them into the flavors of the season. Michael and Liana say they chose a traditional custard-based gelato over American-style ice cream because of its lightness and ability to showcase the purity of flavors, due to its lower fat content. It’s not low-fat, but it’s refresh- ing and delicately creamy.
Liana tends to the shop, spading cups and cones for the line-up of customers who chat excitedly about the flavors as they wait. Summer bursts forth with flavors like Peach, Mixed Berry and Nectarine, as well as delicate Rose and Lav- ender made with flowers from Allstar Organics of Nicasio. Year-round flavors include Toasted Almond, with fresh nut flavor, and Carmello, silky smooth with intense caramel flavor and a pleasantly bitter finish. Standouts include pale green Mint Chocolate Chip, packed with intense mint flavor, and Salted Chocolate, with a touch of grey sea salt that brings out the chocolate’s fruitiness.
During summer, Michael pedals his cooler-laden, custom- made gelato bike to the park, selling wee cups of gelato to happy sand-throwers and overheated kickball players.
Get some:
Cici Gelateria 17 East Blithedale Avenue, Mill Valley tel: 415.388.2423
Summer hours: Sun–Thurs 11:30 am–10pm, Fri–Sat 11:30am–11pm
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Press Democrat - July 28, 2009
Preserving apples - Restaurants feature fruit as part of drive to save heritage foods
By Robert Digitale
The humble Gravenstein, an heirloom apple whose fortunes for decades have declined in Sonoma County, will appear next month on the menus of such renowned restaurants as Yountville’s French Laundry and Berkeley’s Chez Panisse.
Nearly 60 Bay Area restaurants will highlight the apples in cooperation with Slow Food Russian River. The summer harvest of the Gravensteins, an iconic part of the county’s farm history, was getting under way this week.
The international Slow Food organization based in Italy has designated the Gravenstein, prized for its taste in pies and applesauce, as one of a handful of heritage foods to be preserved in the United States — and the only one in California.
“We agreed to get involved because I think it’s really important to preserve these heirloom apples,” said Karen Martin, a chef owner with her husband Lucas Martin of K & L Bistro in Sebastopol. Their menu next month will include a Gravenstein apple tart with apple caramel ice cream.
At Monti’s restaurant in Santa Rosa, chef Paul Schroeder plans to feature a barbecued Duroc pork chop with jalapeño Gravenstein apple sauce.
Yountville’s Ad Hoc, a casual, family-style restaurant also owned by the French Laundry’s Thomas Keller, will serve a breakfast dish of a Gravenstein apple compote atop sourdough waffles.
And at Cyrus in Healdsburg, chef owner Douglas Keane will give each diner a Gravenstein apple sphere — solid on the outside and liquid on the inside — in canapes that feature five spoon-size tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, savory and, in the case of the tart Gravs, sour.
Farmers consider the restaurants’ offerings a boost in the efforts to save the apple as a commercial product.
“Just getting the Gravenstein news out, no matter how you do it, is a plus,” said Lee Walker of Walker Apples outside Graton.
Walker, one of the last farmers in the county to operate his own packing shed, sent out pickers for the first time this season Tuesday and began packing apples in cardboard boxes for shipping to the wholesale market in San Francisco. He said the restaurants will reach a younger generation “that doesn’t know what a Gravenstein is.”
In the days before cold storage, the Gravensteins were the first fresh apple shipped each summer to market in the United States. In the 1940s, the county had about 15,000 acres of apples, mostly Gravensteins. But last year, according to crop reports, the county had only 2,800 acres of apples, and fewer than 900 were planted in Gravensteins.
In the United States today, the only freshly picked apple available in early August is the Gravenstein, according to the local food preservation group Slow Food Russian River. The group maintains that anything else either was kept in cold storage since fall or was shipped from the Southern Hemisphere.
Its leaders maintain the Gravensteins are an important part of the county’s culture and worth saving. Their aim is to increase the sale of fresh apples, which bring farmers far more than for those that go to processing.
“I’m all for fresh and local. And you don’t get any fresher or local than Gravs,” said Susan Campbell, who helps coordinate the Gravenstein apple project, called a presidia.
The group will promote the restaurants Sunday when the Gravensteins are highlighted at the Sebastopol Farm Market and again Aug. 15 and 16 at the town’s annual Gravenstein Apple Fair. The fair is expected at the height of this year’s harvest.
Along with the white tablecloth restaurants, the Gravensteins are slated to be on the menu at Screamin’ Mimis Ice Cream in Sebastopol and at Cici Gelateria in Mill Valley. “It’s the best apple we can get to make sorbet out of,” said Liana Orlandi, who with her husband Michael Orlandi specialize in making local, seasonal and organic gelato and sorbet.
Last fall, she traveled as a Slow Food delegate to the group’s conference in Turin. There she viewed a map depicting all of the organization’s projects to save local foods.
“It was really cool to see the map of the world and to see that Gravenstein apple on the map,” Orlandi said.
You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090728/ARTICLES/907289885/1349?Title=Preserving-apples
Gelateria Cici ...A Sweet Surprise!
By Staff
Where can you find fig, avocado and cucumber gelato, as well as classic vanilla and chocolate, among dozens of other flavors — all made from scratch with local, organic ingredients? Gelateria Cici!
Located in Mill Valley, this specialty sweet shop was founded two years ago by two Mill Valley natives, Liana Davis and Michael Orlandi. Your mouth may be watering already, but just don’t confuse Cici with an ice cream store, because gelato and ice cream are, in fact, very different. Whereas ice cream has a fat content of 12-22%, gelato has a fat content of 4-8%. Ice cream has an air content of 50%, while gelato has an air content of 20%. What results is a dense and delicious, high-flavor, low-fat treat.
Already unique in the world of frozen desserts, Cici goes to great lengths to distinguish itself from other gelaterias. How, you ask? Well, Cici’s owners craft their gelato from scratch with all organic ingredients. Instead of getting slimy peaches out of a can that traveled halfway around the world, they buy juicy peaches fresh from local farmers!
Liana and Michael showed us the gelato-making process from start to finish. The first step we learned is to prepare the featured ingredients. In Cici’s adorable East Blithedale location, we watched as Michael’s father carefully squeezed lemons to make lemon gelato. Next, he measured out the fruit, using the metric system for precision and consistency. Then, he added the so-called “base” into the fruit. The base is made from organic cream, sugar, milk and eggs, and at Cici they have a special machine that mixes the base for all their unique gelato flavors. After mixing in any additional ingredients, he liquified the ingredients with an intensely roaring blender. After letting the creamy substance settle for 15 minutes, Michael and Liana place the gelato mix in a large batch freezer, which allows all the ingredients to combine beautifully, and gives the gelato the right consistency. The batch freezer spins the ingredients together, and after about six to eight minutes, the gelato is expelled into a tub that is already frozen. If any special ingredients like chocolate or fruit chunks need to be added, the gelato masters layer them with gelato from the batch freezer, then mix it all together. Lastly, they put the tins in the blast freezer, which keeps the gelato at -30º Fahrenheit so that it is too cold to form ice crystals. This helps keep the amazingly smooth texture of gelato.
Michael and Liana work long hours to keep the gelateria running, and they almost never have a day off. All of their hard work has paid off, though, because Cici has become a very popular location for an after-school snack or dessert. They were even invited to represent Marin at the Slow Food Conference in Italy, which recognizes outstanding chefs and farmers who make local and sustainably grown food. Check out Gelateria Cici — chocolate hazelnut, fig, pistaccio gelato or mango sorbetto? One for me, please!
Tidbits: Here comes the organic gelato man on two wheels
By Vicki Larson
Cici co-owner Michael Orlandi and his custom, hand-built gelato bicycle. (Provided by Michael Orlandi)
One of the surest signs of summer in my New York City neighborhood was the sound of the bells of the Good Humor truck. Nothing like that first Fudgesicle or Strawberry Shortcake for 25 cents.
Mill Valley kids may grow up with a slightly different version - like getting their prepacked cups of handcrafted organic gelato from a red, $8,000 custom-built two-wheel bike.
It was the idea of Cici's Michael Orlandi, who owns the popular East Blithedale Avenue gelateria with his fiancee, Liana Davis. An avid cyclist ("He'll ride anything with two wheels," Davis laughs), Orlandi wanted a bike to take to catered events and to ride around Mill Valley's neighborhoods.
"Michael's been wanting some sort of a mobile gelato cart for a while," Davis says. But he wanted a two-wheeler, not the typical three-wheeled cart. When he saw the bike that SyCip created for Boccalone Salumeria in San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace, he contacted the Santa Rosa bike shop.
Orlandi has taken it out for a few spins now that the weather's been nicer.
"It takes a little bit of skill to ride it," she says. Look for it out and about soon.
Cici is at 17 East Blithedale Ave. in Mill Valley. Call 388-2423.
Marin IJ - December 12, 2007
Leslie Harlib's Cuisine Scene: Ups and downs of 2007 restaurant scene
By Leslie Harlib
Co-owners Liana Davis and Michael Orlandi opened Marin County s first organic gelateria, Cici, in Mill Valley in June.
Every year at this time I look back on the openings, closings and transformations in Marin's restaurant scene. It was a rich year, and a vital one.
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Marin got sweeter thanks to the 2007 launch of Cici Gelateria on East Blithedale in Mill Valley; it serves housemade organic gelato and sorbettos in seasonally changing flavors. Sweet Detour, on Fourth Street, brought more sugar to downtown San Rafael with a wide range of candies, chocolate bars and Gelato Classico by the scoop. For sippin' smoothies, you can't beat the Juicery, an organic juice and tea bar that opened in July on City Plaza in downtown San Rafael.
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Leslie Harlib can be reached at lharlib@marinij.com
Leslie Harlib's Cuisine Scene: Satisfy sweet tooth coolly and organically
By Leslie Harlib
There's a lot of sweet news this week.
Cici (pronounced Chee Chee) Gelateria, with a full range of organic Italian gelatos, sorbets and coffee drinks, opened June 15 at 17 E. Blithedale in Mill Valley.
I stopped in recently at 9:45 p.m. on my way back from San Francisco. It was great to find a place for a quick dessert at that hour. It was even better to find that the cold treat was of such high quality.
Owners Michael Orlandi and his fiancee, Liana Davis, display their gelatos like jewelry in a semicircular sweep of frosty metal tins. These are filled with swirls of ultra-creamy organic creams and plenty of fresh fruit sorbets, like a tangy hot pink raspberry made with Mount Barnabe organic raspberries that had a lush true-fruit finish. A ruby cherry sorbet was as subtle on the tongue as it was dazzling on the eyes. There was malaga, rife with plump, Marsala-marinated whole raisins. Zabaglione, straw gold in hue, had a true egg custard quality deepened with sherry flavor. A thick chocolate gelato made with Scharffen Berger chocolate welcomed the mouth with a bittersweet tease under its smoothness. I was impressed with the tawny toasted almond with its marzipan notes, and the rich hazelnut gelato, one of the most potent flavors in the case. Pistachio, the cream-soaked khaki green of bronte pistachios from Sicily, is the real deal, addictive for pistachio-lovers. As for the classic vanilla, it had a flower finish and plenty of flecks of pure vanilla beans.
Cici's gelatos will vary with the season and what the owners gather at the local farmers markets. Given all the great stone fruit available right now, it's the ideal time to check out this new store.
Cici is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays; until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
For more information, call 388-2423.
Leslie Harlib writes about food and restaurants on Wednesdays. You can call her at 382-7340, send a fax to 884-1478, an e-mail to lharlib@marinij.com, or write to her c/o of the IJ, P.O. Box 6150, Novato 94948-6150.
Marin IJ - May 29, 2007
Leslie Harlib's Cuisine Scene: A grander space to Dai For
By Leslie Harlib
Marin's first organic gelato store will open within the next two weeks. Cici (pronounced Chee Chee) at 17 E. Blithedale Ave. in Mill Valley, and in development since autumn 2006, is expected to open in early June, says owners Liana Davids and Michael Orlandi.
"We're finally getting close. We got our power upgrade from PG&E last week," Davis says.
The couple originally expected to open in January.
"It took a lot longer than we thought to get open, though talking to people we hear it's pretty standard to have long delays," she says.
The store will feature made-in-house organic gelatos that will vary seasonally to reflect what's available in a year's worth of farmers markets.
"We're always going to have the basics, such as chocolate, vanilla, yogurt and crema," Davids says. "Our opening assortment should also have strawberry and stone fruit flavors."
Cones will be made fresh in-house with organic ingredients.
In addition to gelato, Cici will feature Segafredo Zanetti coffee from Italy that will be used in a variety of espresso drinks. One of Italy's most delicious combinations, affogato de cafe, hot espresso poured over gelato, will be on the menu.
The little cafe seats 11 at tables and three at a counter and will serve primarily gelato and coffee drinks at first.
"We want to do our basic things very well," Davids explains. "Once we get open and feel good about our product, we can add to our menu little by little. We have to see what our customer base wants."
Cici will be open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays; until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
"We feel there's a real need for people to have a place to go after dinner or movies or a show," Davids says. We hope people will be glad to have one more little event to do of an evening, to come here, eat gelato and converse or whatever else."
For more information, call 388-2423.
