I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM
Gelato has become very, very cool
It may be a stretch to consider opening a gelato store a civic duty. But public service is what Fatima Haymour and her fellow entrepreneurs had in mind when they opened La Carraia Gelato, the new sweet-treat shop located downtown at 10067 109 St.
“It’s something to make people happy,” said Haymour, one of the co-owners of the local outlet of this international gelato chain, based in Florence, Italy. “People are never upset when they are eating ice cream.”
Italian ice cream has been served for years in a few rare locations in the city, such as Rosso Pizzeria (8738 109 St.), Cococo (10103 124 St.), Leva (11053 86 Ave.) and Block 1912 (10361 82 Ave.). But now, the dessert is popping up in other city locales. La Carraia is just one of a growing number of icy outlets that make gelato (with a milk base) and sorbet (dairy-free) right on-site.
Haymour says her shop, the first for the brand in Canada, has been voted the top gelato in Italy. Although the milk in the product (churned fresh daily in the back of the shop) comes from Alberta, many of the other ingredients come from Italy.
La Carraia also sells an Italian coffee called Mokasirs, the only place in the city for that brand.
Patrons can eat gelato in the shop, which has 11 seats inside, and 12 on the patio, or order a carton to go. The cartons keep the ice cream solid for an hour and home delivery is available through Skip the Dishes.
St. Albert is home to two new gelato outlets. One is at the Italian Bakery’s Mercato, which celebrates its grand opening Saturday at 120 Bellerose Dr. There, owner Adamo Rosso and gelato master Paolo Pucci, pride themselves on owning a gelato machine imported from Italy, and on the roughly 20 flavours of gelato and sorbeto created for the menu. Five gelatos and three sorbetos are available each day in flavours including lemon, bubble gum, and strachitella (vanilla with Nutella). The sorbetos are made fresh with products found in the store, including strawberries and mangoes.
Also new to St. Albert is a storefront for DaVinci Gelato. Gelato queen and co-owner Yvonne Irnich has been making top-quality products for the past couple of years for all the Famoso locations in the Edmonton area, but now she’s expanded customer access with a new gelateria at 12 Rayburn Rd. There are nine flavours of sorbeto and gelato available daily, such as salted caramel with chocolate, raspberry lime and New York cheesecake. Irnich says the sorbetos are extremely creamy in texture, owing to the great quantities of fruit in the recipes.
South-side dwellers have a new(ish) option for smacking their lips at FanFan, a French patisserie that opened about a year ago at 10330 80 Ave. There, owner and pastry chef Franck Bouilhol has a selection of 20 flavours, sold by the scoop and by the pint. His recipe comes from Antonio Bilotta, owner of Da Capo Caffe (8135 102 St.), long a stop for lovers of Italian ice cream. (Just for your information, Bilotta now has FanFan make Da Capo’s eight varieties of gelato rather than doing it on-site at the Whyte Avenue cafe. He notes that a new freezer at Da Capo with a secure, stainless-steel lid keeps the eight flavours on hand fresher than ever.)
Most Italian ice cream stores tilt toward gelato, with a limited selection of sorbeto. But at FanFan, that ratio is reversed (that’s because sorbeto is more of a French product than is gelato, says Bouilhol). Watch for roughly 14 kinds of sorbeto and six kinds of gelato with exotic tastes such as lychee, passion fruit and William Tell (made with pears).