Thursday, September 21, 2006

Gelato; Food for the Soul, Slow to Make Inroads in US, Why?

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Gelato is similar to ice cream, although it is made with milk, not cream. The texture is denser, and it is softer than ice cream.

"Americans like richer, heavier. They will take something like French vanilla and throw in chocolate. Italians aren't like that; they like one thing."

"We've seen a lot of frozen custard stores opening, more so than gelato. It's a different concept making frozen custard and making gelato rather than making ice cream."  

 

Gelato isn't frozen hard, like ice cream, so it doesn't keep as long. Gelato has to be sold within two or three days, if they're making it in the traditional way. Ice cream is not as fragile.

 

GLEN ELLYN MAN'S PLANS FINALLY JELL

Naperville store sells 18 flavors of gelato, Italy's answer to ice cream  and they're all made on the premises

 

The Naperville Sun

Suburb of Chicago

By  Meg Dedolph

Business Editor

Wednesday September 20, 2006

 

Paul Pitaro was executive vice president of Chicago Messenger Service.

That changed with his latest idea and, on Aug. 19, he started selling gelato, an Italian ice cream, from his Naperville store, Gelati.

Gelato is similar to ice cream, although it is made with milk, not cream. The texture is denser, and it is softer than ice cream. Pitaro sells 18 flavors of gelato and fruit sorbet, made at the store, including chocolate hazelnut, pistachio and mixed berry.

He and his wife, Nancy, his sisters Mary Pitaro and Gia Cassin, his cousin, Roan Primieribozzelo, and his children all work there, juggling shifts at the store with school and in some cases, other jobs.

To prepare for the opening, Primieribozzelo took courses in Venice, Italy, on how to make gelato before moving to the United States in March.

During her studies, Primieribozzelo met Palmiro Bruschi, a member of the Italian Ice Cream Academy, which promotes traditional ice-cream making.

Bruschi, an ambassador for the academy, traveled to Naperville twice, once when the shop opened, and most recently in September to help Pitaro and his staff improve their gelato-making skills.

"We felt more confident getting a professional in here to walk us through it," Pitaro said.

Pitaro and his family spent time persuading Bruschi that they really wanted to sell Italian-style gelato, with few concessions to American taste buds.

"Americans like richer, heavier," Bruschi said, with Pitaro's help as a translator. "They will take something like French vanilla and throw in chocolate. Italians aren't like that; they like one thing."

Pitaro wasn't always sure of his concept, especially when he considered all the other ice cream stores.

But he thought the gelato idea had some staying power. When he lived in Italy as a young man, he took the dessert for granted, but when he returned with family and friends, 19 years later, he found they would happily eat gelato every day, usually more than once.

"You talk to anyone who's been to Italy, they'll say they used to eat gelato twice a day," he said.

A Glen Ellyn resident, Pitaro looked throughout area suburbs, and found a  former Baskin-Robbins, near a movie theater  and its foot traffic  and has space for outdoor seating, although it needed renovation to meet city codes.

Gelati isn't the first gelato store in the city. He joins Gelato Dreams, and Riva Gelato.  But so far, he is pleased with business.

"The response has been overwhelming," he said. "We haven't had any advertising, but we had 300 people come through here in a day."

Gelato  while undeniably popular in Italy  hasn't quite caught on in the United States, said Lynda Utterback, executive director of the National Ice Cream Retailers Association, based in Elk Grove Village.

"We have 350 members and there are probably 10 people who serve gelato," she said. "We've seen a lot of frozen custard stores opening, more so than gelato. It's a different concept  making frozen custard and making gelato rather than making ice cream."

Gelato isn't frozen hard, like ice cream, so it doesn't keep as long, she said.

"They have to be sold within two or three days, if they're making it in the traditional way," she said.

For an ice cream store to succeed, it takes more than a good product, she said.

"Ice cream is not so much a food for nourishment as it is a food for the soul," she said.

Contact Meg Dedolph at 630-416-5297 or mdedolph@scn1.com.

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