Gelato Festival - Melrose

"A novel new gelato shop is primed to take over along a busy stretch of West Hollywood soon. It’s called Gelato Festival, and just as the name implies it’s tied in with the decade-old international gelato festival founded in Florence, Italy. Gelato Festival (the event) is a near around the clock, around-the-world party, having launched over 100 events since 2010. Ticket holders get access to premium gelato vendors spinning their own stuff, and can even vote on winners in the end. Gelato Festival, the restaurant, is a small storefront almost directly across the street from Craig’s and around the corner of Gracias Madre. The plan there is to focus on a much smaller rotation of menu flavors and to offer an on-site lab for customers to learn about gelato’s past and future. Think of it like the Museum of Ice Cream, but with actual ice cream instead of Instagrammable installations. Not so coincidentally, the opening of Gelato Festival (again, the restaurant) on Saturday coincides with the arrival of Gelato Festival the festival next month in West Hollywood, on September 28 and 29. Tickets for that event at the Pacific Design Center run $25 a head. Hours for Gelato Festival the restaurant run Sunday through Thursday, noon to 11 p.m., with an extension to midnight on Friday and Saturday." - Farley Elliott

"The roving Gelato Festival will open a permanent location next to Gracias Madre in WeHo at the end of August, just ahead of the actual festival in late-September." - Mona Holmes