Paciugo Gelato & Caffè

The gelato itself tasted pretty good. It’s gelato. What was NOT okay about my particular scoop of gelato from Paciugo was that there was a little sharp piece of plastic embedded in my gelato (it was hiding, so it ended up in my mouth). Gross! I let the employee working right away and she replaced my scoop with another to compensate. However, I just wasn’t able to enjoy it because I was paranoid about finding another plastic shard in my gelato.
Kind of a bummer. I was totally in the mood for gelato and this place seemed pretty solid at first (and from what I had previously heard). I would return to another Paciugo to give it another shot because I’m sure this was an isolated incident.

A co-​worker of mine told me about this little gem.
I had no idea what gelato was exactly. I just knew it looked like some delicious ice cream but I wasn’t exactly sure. My co-​worker informed me that it is in fact Italian ice cream.
Anyway, I went to try a espresso shake like my co-​worker suggested one day but the employee informed me that the espresso machine was broken. She told me she could gladly make me just a shake. I tried the Smore’s flavor and it was good (even though I’m not a fan of a lot of chocolate). I’ve been hooked every since.
The best thing about this place is you can sample the gelato goodness and mix and match flavors into one. My current fav is the Coffee Cookies’n Milk.

I stopped back in here recently and had an Affogato, which is Espresso poured over Ice Cream. I tried it with Bailey’s Ice Cream and Chocolate. It was very good. The staff here is Super friendly and helpful!

This place is ok… I wasn’t sure if it was still located in the Mayfair area in the building that had previously had Cold Stone… I stopped in here one day after having first tried Gelato at Cold Spoons a few weeks prior. Here, the flavors were many of the same, and the employees are friendly enough, but the gelato isn’t nearly as creamy and the ambiance isn’t the same. It feels like a chain. There was no place to really sit down and it was pretty empty. I’ll go back to Cold Spoons from now on…

Mmm… Gelato.
I was so happy to try Paciugo after driving by what seemed like hundreds of times without ever stopping in. This was my first real gelato experience and I learned a lot:
1. Gelato is perfect for people who can’t make up their mind because you get to choose more than one flavor. I ordered a «Grande» and got to pick up to five flavors. *Tip: Pick flavors that go well together because they’re all sharing the same bowl.
2. Gelato is apparently a lot healthier than other frozen treats. Because gelato uses milk instead of cream, it has 70% less fat than ice cream and custard. Paciugo also has soy-​based and no-​sugar-​added gelato and fat free sorbet. So as far as frozen decadence goes, gelato is the way to go.
3. The flavors are much stronger than ice cream. I couldn’t believe how good Chocolate Cookies & Milk was. Way better than normal Cookies & Cream ice cream. I mean light years better.
4. Free samples! Yay!
5. They have something called «Affogato» which is three scoops of gelato in espresso or cioccolata (I assume hot chocolate), topped with whipped cream. Strange, but something I must try.
Go to Paciugo at Mayfair. Do it. You’ll be so happy that you did.

Gelato is the snack of the indecisive. Every gelato specific place I have been to allows multiple flavors in a cup and thank god for that. The other thing every gelato place I have been to has is what seems like a million different flavors to choose from and damn if sometimes it is a REALLY hard choice. So it comes very much in handy to be able to pick more then one flavor.
I couldn’t pronounce the name to this place if I wanted. It sounds like a Pokemon and for all I know, it is one. But what I can tell you is that they had some really flavorful gelato. On the scale of cold treats, gelato sits at the top of me, above custard, ice cream and frozen yogurt, in that order. There is something about gelato. The non-​fruity flavors just taste more creamy, more full of flavor then you get with ice cream and the fruity flavors kick you in the mouth. They taste like fresh fruit in the best possible sense. All that and gelato is the more healthy alternative between these frozen treats with less fat, far less in some instances.
On this visit (I will be back) I went with non-​fruity flavors and you are able to get 5 flavors in the large cup, which was great. I tried out the peanut butter cookies and milk, regular cookies and milk, S’mores, wedding cake and crème caramel. Every single one was just packed with flavor. I think the S’mores was my favorite, it was like a cold, gooey brownie with a marshmallow/​graham cracker after-​taste. All the other flavors tasted just like I’d expect with a ton of flavor and also really nice and creamy.
This is only the second gelato place I’ve been to in the area, but they are becoming more and more popular so I am sure I’ll be trying more. If I had to pick, I’d go to DiVino Gelato in Waukesha over this place, but that’s not to say I was disappointed here at all. I hope to not only try all these other places that have begun to serve gelato, but I hope to be back here again sometime soon. A great snack. If I could eat it everyday without dying of fat, I would.

Go for the Caramel Sea Salt gelato, stay for… MORE Caramel Sea Salt gelato. Add a few scoops of the Ruby Red Grapefruit and something deep, dark, and chocolatey, and call it a day!
Wait, don’t leave yet. Before you go, try the Maple-​Bacon gelato. Not sure if it was a seasonal thing but I tasted it last year and YUM!
My adoration of this place runs deep. It is anyone’s guess why, with a love so true as mine is for Paciugo, I am not morbidly obese.
P. S. I tried to go to the one at Brookfield Square once, but their door was locked. It struck me as weird because it was after noon on a sunny summer weekend, and their posted hours said they should be open. An employee noticed me peering into the window and came out to tell me somewhat woozily they were still making the gelato. Mind you, I had my heart set on some Caramel Sea Salt gelato that day, and this was unwelcome news indeed. I may or may not have muttered «[Effing] stoner» as I walked away, and the teenage employee may or may not have heard me. I am not proud of that moment. Consequently, I can never go back to the Paciugo at Brookfield Square, so I hit up the one at Mayfair instead.

It’s hard to judge a place like this when it’s 25 degrees out! But, with a Groupon days away from expiring, my husband and I stopped in for a cool treat on a cool day, that would likely be much better mid-​summer.
I love the option of getting several flavors per dish, so we both tried four, the chocolate peanut butter and chocolate almond were my favorites. They are generous with samples too, and with the 30+ options, it’s nice to be able to try plenty before ordering. (Only one sample for me – chocolate/​cinnamon/​cayenne pepper, what a kick!)

I’m not big on Gelato, but my sister is… so we went. I enjoyed sampling a bit of everything. I highly recommend trying the Chocolate Peanut Butter, Key Lime Pie, and Hazelnut. The Chocolate Peanut Butter is so rich in flavor, the Key Lime was tangy and tart and the Hazelnut was SO smooth and creamy.
I ended up going with a concoction of Baileys, Pumpkin Pie, and Coco Coconut. I love anything Baileys and this was right up my alley. The Pumpkin Pie was oh so seasonally delicious with a nice blend of sugar & spice. And the Coco Coconut had delightful little flakes of coconut.
It was a nice change from my traditional guilty pleasure of frozen yogurt and custard.
I was able to check-​in on Unilocal!and received the special offer for a free European style hot chocolate. The counter lady only had hot chocolate straight-​up American style. Since I wouldn’t know a European chocolate if I saw it I accepted an American substitute. It was a bitter sweet hot chocolate, different than I expected, but went very well with the sweet goodness in my little Gelato cup.

Really good Gelato. I have had better but I like the idea of putting more than one flavor together. Gives you a chance to try more than one. Very friendly service.