The Maine Switch
September 9, 2007
Bruno Tropeano grew up eating gelato on family trips to Italy. Because of his early exposure to the real deal, he’s been continually disappointed with the quality of gelato served up in this country. So when he and business partner Josh Davis (together they own a real estate development company) were brainstorming about fun, specialty foods businesses they could start, Tropeano mentioned gelato.
It was an idea that immediately clicked and soon they were touring up and down the East Coast, sampling gelato. The result of all that tasting is The Gelato Fiasco on Maine Street in Brunswick, which opened a month ago. This gourmet shop has a big city feel and a creamy, sweet soul.
“The fiasco in the name refers to how everyone else is doing gelato and how everyone is experiencing gelato,” says Tropeano, 24. “It’s a fiasco.”
Despite its name, not many people will likely use fiasco to describe this new gelateria. Quality and creativity are the guiding principles here. Even though the shop keeps up to 32 gelato and sorbetto flavors on tap at any given time, each batch is made on site using natural ingredients.
“We discovered there’s a lot of impostors and poor quality gelato out there,” says Davis, 25. “The most important thing with gelato is it needs to be made fresh all the time. It doesn’t last more than seven to 10 days. We make gelato every day, and most of the pans are no more than three days old.
“Bruno and I go to enormous lengths to make sure it’s as authentic Italian as possible, right down to the spoons,” Davis adds, referring to the tiny shovel-shaped spoons called palettine.
Unlike ice cream, gelato is made with milk (rather than cream), and it’s non-fat, non-dairy cousin, sorbetto, is made with water instead of milk. Tropeano explains that premium ice creams can have 20% or more total fat, while gelato generally clocks in at 7% fat. A different mixing process is used when making gelato, and the special freezer case cools the gelato to 5-10? Fahrenheit, while ice cream is kept at below zero temps.
Inside that specially tuned freezer, you’ll find an ever-changing array of sweet delights. Recent flavors include such far-out tastes as peach basil, wasabi, cinnamon Oreo, strawberry balsamic, chocolate chipolte and ginger cardamom. Customer favorites swirl around more traditional concoctions, like cake batter, roasted almond, wild blueberry and mocha. A box on the counter encourages customers to make flavor suggestions, and Davis and Tropeano say repeat visitors are often shocked to find their suggestion in the freezer.
A medium sized dish sells for $4.25 and a scoop on a house-made waffle cone will cost you 95 cents plus the cost of a scoop. The signature, and truly decadent offering, is The Fiasco, which sells for $42.50. This is made up of six Simply Divine brownies topped with 10-12 scoops of gelato or sorbetto. When ordered, the staff plays the theme music from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
But you don’t need such a production to enjoy this dessert.
As Tropeano says, “the proof is in the taste.”
Good luck stopping at just one bite.
Loading ...
