Cafe’s sweet gelato leaves sour taste in mouths of unsuspecting tourists

For me to pay nearly $18 for a gelato, I'd want Harrison Ford attached and licking the other side.

Sadly, "The Bomb" at Della Spiga Cafe at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace does not come with Harrison Ford. But it does cost $16.69 (nearly $18 with tax). I'm not saying the gelato wasn't good. It was. But I could sympathize with tourists from Oregon who first complained to me about feeling ripped off by the cafe located outside the FAO Schwartz toy store.

But first, I had to investigate.

Once there, I saw how the manipulative marketing scheme works.

The Della Spiga gets tourists coming and going. The open-air café sitting in the middle of the mall has two gelato cases, one on each side of the cafe. No matter which way you're walking, you can't miss the vision of cool, luscious, colorful gelato. And truly, they looked wonderful. Customers are offered free samples of 24 flavors with enticing names.

I ordered a medium, first tasting the Triple Bavarian Chocolate with Fudge Swirl but then ordering a lemon gelato with a fancy name I don't remember. The guy behind the counter packed my cup to the brim then walked it to the cash register, which wasn't visible from standing in front of the gelato case.

A sign on the cash register explains the Pee-Wee is $5.59, the small is $7.59, the medium is $9.99, the grande is $12.59 and The Bomb is $16.59. The Bomb doesn't look overwhelmingly large. Most people were ordering grandes or The Bomb from my observation.

I sampled mine, then waited and watched the next customers buy gelato.

Georgina Stewart, a 21-year-old tourist from England, had offered to buy gelato for the San Diego family she was visiting. When the bill totaled nearly $45 for two grandes and The Bomb, I could see the shock on her face.

When she sat down with the D'Angelo family to eat the most expensive gelato they'd ever had, I joined them.

Tim D'Angelo, his daughter Cecilia, and Georgina all said the gelato was excellent. His wife, Marion, opted for a Double Bloody Mary at $14.

Yes, Georgina felt ripped off. "But isn't that the whole idea of Vegas? It's all about the money," she said.

Meanwhile, down at Trevi, the restaurant near the fountain midway in the mall, the gelato stand was selling sorbet for $3.95 and gelato for $4.50. And the prices were posted nearby.

Della Spiga's owner Gerry Shlesinger is proud of his product. He said starting in August he's going to be offering an even larger gelato called "The Terminator" ... for $35.

Shlesinger, also the owner of Las Vegas Helicopters, has been in business here 17 years. He said the imported gelato is made of the finest ingredients; he has to pay for a sophisticated system of freezing and transporting. "It's the best of the best," he said. And he provides a place to sit down. And it is the Forum Shops.

"We have a liberal refund policy," Shlesinger said. "We've refunded people who have eaten half of it and decided they don't like it."

He declined to tell me the brand he imports. "It's a world-class gelato and that has a value," he said, noting that his gelato is sold in a mall containing stores where people pay $90,000 for watches and $10,000 for designer dresses.

However, Della Spiga looks like a fast-food operation, not a gourmet restaurant.

If the prices were displayed where the gelato was scooped, I wouldn't have a problem. But few bother to ask the price.

Debra Parsons, the Oregonian who e-mailed me her complaint, said she had never seen her husband so disturbed over the price of an item when they paid more than $42 for three gelatos.

Could I do anything to stop this gelato entrapment?

Actually, no.

But if it's gourmet gelato (and it is), then Shlesinger shouldn't be afraid to post his prices prominently.

That's never going to happen. His business would plummet faster than a scoop of his gelato falling off a cone.

Instead, tourists burned up by paying that much for gelato just go home grumbling about being taken in Las Vegas.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.