Remember summer? That brief, 23-day aberration we get towards the end of September? As of this morning’s rain, it’s basically over for the next 49 weeks, but don’t let that stop you from indulging in the sweetest, most euro treat of the season. And the new Lush Gelato on Polk Street (their third location overall) is just the place, particularly when you’re far from the Axis of Ice Cream in the Mission.
 

It’s as simple as it gets: 12 flavors, rotated daily, with a couple tables.

That’s it. Some of them are as unusual as the more intentionally

out-there ice cream shops: buttermilk cucumber,

Point Reyes blue cheese and cranberries, and

Drunken Earl (Earl Grey tea with bourbon-soaked strawberries.)

Lush’s singularly creamy texture is unmistakable, because

(as Eater reported) owner Federico Murtagh goes to the trouble of making his own base instead of buying gallon jugs of it from Straus Creamery like everybody else does. It shows — doubly so in flavors such as mascarpone balsamic with chocolate chunks, which is already rich to begin with. For the dairy-intolerant, there are seasonal sorbettoes as well (and when November rolls around, tangerine should make its debut.)

One rule to observe at any fancy ice cream place, is that if a flavor has salt in it (like Lush’s salted stracciatella, Humphry Slocombe’s Salt & Pepa, or Bi-Rite’s salted caramel), it’s crucial that you pair it with another flavor, because it will make that scoop come alive. Armed with this wisdom, you will enjoy it all the more.

And who cares if the sun’s going down at 6:15? Lush is open until midnight on weekends.

Lush Gelato, 1817 Polk.

 

Link to article http://www.sfweekly.com/foodie/2014/10/15/lush-gelato-is-open-late-on-polk-street