Mary Haddad has a new favorite drink: the "gelatini" at Dolce Luna Italian Cafe and Gelato Bar in Ahwatukee.
A gelatini, a new signature treat of Dolce Luna, is a martini with a small scoop of gelato or sorbet.
"I tried the lemon one," Haddad of Phoenix said. "It was fabulous. It was so refreshing because of the lemon, the tangy and the sweet flavor. It is refreshing going into the cooler months. I think that the gelato scoop that they put in it keeps it nice and cold."
Dolce Luna owner Tina Noglik said another cooling possibility is to have a Cabernet or Riesling sorbet.
"The gelatinis are very new, and we are working daily to get it perfected," Noglik said. "It is frozen, and it stays very cold. It is very tasty. The Cabernet sorbet is like having a frozen glass of wine."
Other gelatini flavors include a martini with raspberry sorbet, lemon gelato or sorbet, and with chocolate gelato.
Besides being tasty, gelato generally has a lower fat content than regular ice cream.
"It has very little air whipped in it. It is very dense and very flavor-intense," Noglik said. "We make our gelatos primarily with milk, with very little cream, so it has only a third of the butter fat that ice creams have."
Stefanie Strackbein recently sampled the gelatinis.
"They are really great," said Strackbein, 40, of Phoenix. "It is perfect for Arizona because of the warm weather. Plus, it is an adult ice-cream drink, which I think it is pretty cool."
The idea for the cafe, which opened two and a half years ago, came from Noglik trying to create a place like the ones she was used to going to growing up in Germany.
"I thought I would create a little bit of that here, a nice place for people of any age to go," Noglik said.
