60 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • OCTOBER 19, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Gelato & Co. opens in Astoria
BY KATRINA MEDOFF
katrina@boromag.com
@KatrinaMedoff
You can now get authentic Italian gelato
in Astoria — and we really do mean
authentic.
A new gelato spot was opened during
Labor Day Weekend by Italian Francesco
D’Ambrosio, who moved to Astoria four
years ago, and his fi ve business partners
in Italy, some of whom come from families
who have been making gelato in Sicily
for generations.
Gelato & Co. (29-02 23rd Ave., Astoria)
uses these family recipes for its gelato,
and a staff member even came over from
Italy to teach the employees how to make
the dessert.
Th e gelato is made fresh in the gelateria
every day using all Italian ingredients,
except for the milk. Th e equipment is
from Italy, too, and D’Ambrosio said that
it was the best of the best: it’s “the Ferrari
of gelato machines.”
Gelato & Co. also off ers high-quality
coff ee, espresso, gelato with coff ee and
hot chocolate, and starting next month, it
will begin selling something that’s “quite
new in the United States”: Italian gelato
cake, which D’Ambrosio said is diff erent
from ice cream cake.
D’Ambrosio said he has been dreaming
of opening a gelateria for 20 years, and
it was important to bring his
own cultural tradition to his
new home here in Queens.
“I think it is important that
we keep from Italy the tradition
of making gelato and put it
here in this store in Astoria,” he
said. “Th at’s the most important
thing for us.”
Th e community has been
“very, very warm” so far,
D’Ambrosio said. “What I
really love about Astoria
is the melting pot of
different cultures.
Th ere is a big Italian community, a big
Greek community, a lot of diff erent communities
from Europe, but I can tell you
that all of the neighbors, including the
American people who were born and
raised here, are very warm.
“Everybody here loves our gelato,” he
added. “We’re very excited about this.”
Astoria was the right place to open an
artisanal gelateria because the neighborhood
is growing very fast, D’Ambrosio
said, and because there’s a great mix of
families with kids and young professionals
who are looking for good food.
Plus, while it’s easy to fi nd good,
authentic gelato in Manhattan and
Brooklyn, D’Ambrosio realized
that western Queens
was lacking an artisanal
gelateria.
“Our goal was to
open a gelateria off ering
gelato that’s even
better than in the city,”
D’Ambrosio said.
Plus, Manhattan is full
of tourists who come and
go; D’Ambrosio wanted his
business to become a local
staple that residents return
to again and again.
“We say that we are serving
happiness,” he said. “We’ve
seen that in the two weeks that
we’ve been open: people are
happy when they try our gelato.”