Make your dog a gelato flavor for a good cause! Huh?

November 13, 2000
by Marci Garson

Okay, it might seem a little incongruous to say “dogs” and “gelato” in the same breath, but Via Vanti restaurant and gelateria owner Carla Gambescia calls herself a “foodie” (someone who thinks about food 24/7) and when she sees a dog, she claimed, she sees a flavor.

“For years, I’ll see a pug walk by and think, ‘there’s a butter rumba!’” quipped Gambescia.  “Or I’ll spot a Saint Bernard and think, hmm, coconut banana avalanche.” 

So the restaurateur, who opened Via Vanti just one year ago in the Mt. Kisco train station, created the Dogs in Party Hats contest. To enter the contest, dog owners design a hat for their pooch, get the pooch to wear it long enough to snap a picture, invent an original gelato flavor name to match the dog’s ensemble and download the picture of their canine to www.dogsinpartyhats.com. The entry fee is $20 and all of the proceeds go to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, an internationally accredited guide dog school based in Paterson, New York. 

Gambescia is excited about the fundraiser because the mixture of her passion for food combined with her love of dogs has created a recipe that benefits a very serious cause. Guiding Eyes is responsible for breeding and training dogs to act as eyes for those who are blind or visually impaired.

Michelle Brier, marketing manager for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, called the idea a little crazy, but said the organization is grateful for Gambescia’s enthusiasm and creativity.  “Although we see ourselves as a serious organization, our mission of bringing hope, freedom and independence to blind and impaired people, we also see dogs as bringing joy and love into the world.”  So Brier believes that Dogs in Party Hats is “a good fit,” and said the contest could bring in much needed funds for the non- profit organization.

Put on your thinking cap

Gambescia, an obvious dog enthusiast, believes it should be easy to create a party hat and match it to, not only your puppy, but a gelato flavor as well.  She pointed out, ”Dogs have personalities. Some of them are nutty, and all of their colors are like flavors; their textures like velvets and creamy.”

So put on your thinking cap and then transfer it to your Marshmallow Fluff or your Giant Lemon Yellow. (I happen to have a 110-pound yellow lab who would fit this description only he would probably eat his hat.) The entry deadline is November 30. On December 7 a panel of judges will view the contestants on a wide screen TV at Via Vanti, looking for twelve winners, one for each month of 2010.  The panel will judge the canines and their masters based on three criteria:

1. Fit: Does your dog fit the flavor?

2. Spirit of Fun and Originality: How unique is the hat and/or the flavor?

3. Yummy-ness: How delicious does your flavor sound?

Now, believe me, the third criteria, yummy-ness, is something Via Vanti is all about.  The restaurant boasts a gelato case with 6 sorbet flavors made of real fruit and 12 gelatos that are rotated every week and are often seasonal.  For example, this time of year you might find apple pie gelato and cinnamon with walnut, and the staff encourages taste- testing, promising you will not be disappointed.  So if your dog is a winner, so are you.  Via Vanti will give you one pint of gelato or sorbet free for an entire year.

Your pet will get it’s own party pack treat from “Just for Dogs Gourmet,” right around the corner on Main Street in Mt. Kisco and he or she will become an honored “Flavor of the Month” for 2010. A professional photographer will take a portrait of your canine and it will be enshrined on the “Doggie Wall of Fame” at Via Vanti. And that picture will be in good company. 

Restaurateur blends old with new

Gambescia opened Via Vanti in September 2008, not the best time financially, she admitted, but a labor of love none the less. It was created in honor of her parents and Gambescia has taken great strides to keep it authentic, yet modern. The recipes, such as her mother’s escarole soup, are traditional, but you will not find spaghetti and meatballs here. 

The ambience is charming and as unique as the Dogs In Party Hats fundraiser. The floor pattern is a replica of the brickwork in the Doge Palace in Venice, Italy, and the colonnade mimics the balcony in the famed municipal building, which still sits on the ancient canal. The light fixtures are from Murano, the Italian island famous for its elaborate glasswork.

When you glance around the café you get a true feel for Gambescia’s eccentricity and whimsy. The bar stools are clear plastic and the chairs that line the small tables of two and four are transparent red, an unexpected modern twist in this Old World charm. After all, the owner explained, “Via Avanti means the road forward. I just named it Via Vanti because it’s easier to say!”

Gambescia prides her restaurant with offering not only unique meals to Mount Kisco and the surrounding community, but many special events as well.  November’s schedule is already filled with live bands featuring local musicians and even a “Cultural Discovery Dinner” including wine pairings. 

But perhaps it is safe to say that her latest brainchild, Dogs in Party Hats, is the most outrageous, yet feel-good activity to date. As the proud sponsor put it, “It’s a great, different way to raise money for a good cause and raise awareness, and have fun! It brings out the kid in all of us.”

Marci Garson is an Emmy-award winning television reporter. For 15 years she covered national news on Capitol Hill and local news in Miami, Florida, Connecticut and New York. Garson moved to Chappaqua in 1995 to raise her two boys.