GelatoLove Carlsbad Village

On our list of the best dessert spots in San Diego.

A former science journalist for National Geographic Italia, Paola Richard traded newsrooms for a gelato case in the Village Faire, first calling the shop Gaia before renaming it after buying out a cousin's stake in it. Her signature move is allulose, a natural sugar pulled from kiwis and figs that keeps the texture right without spiking blood sugar. The counter rotates through 36 of more than 300 recipes she's developed, and the room is built like an Italian piazza gelateria, meant for lingering rather than a scoop to go.