After just a few months of business, Gelato-Go is already beginning to turn up on local radars.
It's a gelateria. So what? Miami has tons of them.
"But none of these serve good gelato," argues partner Alessandro Alvino, who knows a thing or two about gelato having grown up in Milan.
Unlike other places in town that offer walls of varieties and flavors, Gelato-Go has just one cool case with 12 flavor options. Why?
"Because we have only one man in the back making the gelato himself," Alvino says.
For some, mass-production is a non-issue, but large franchises are taboo and scream factory-made product.
Every once in a while, though, you'll find honest people like Alvino, and his partners Antonio Armino and Domenico D'Addio, looking to make a good, quality product like the kind they are used to having in Italy. Gelato-Go is the kind of place whose team insists (no matter the expense) on shipping pistachios from a specific supplier in Sicily. Because those are the purest and the best for pistachio gelato.
Each batch is made fresh every morning, and Armino absolutely refuses to use any industrial bases, eggs or butter in his recipes.
A quick glance at the gelato case and you'll notice the simplest of flavor varieties: Vanilla, chocolate, fiordilatte, stracciatella, coconut, pistachio, and strawberry chief among them.
Then you notice the odd balls: Oreo blast and chunky cheesecake are not flavors you would ever find in any gelateria in Italy, but "we have a lot of families come in, and this give kids a quick and easy option," says Alvino. "What kid doesn't recognize the Oreo logo?" Alvino argues, gesturing with his hands more to prove his point.
The storefront is spacious, and on our visit, Alvino ensured us that they are still working on its beautification (though by no means is it not fit for the public as is).
After telling us of near-future architectural plans for the place, he took us to the back to see where the gelato is made.
Armino, a spiky-haired Italian with a bronze tan and jeans so tight, they would make a stripper blush, is the brain behind the product. He, who earned degrees in gelato-making, learned from his father before him and explained to us the importance of using quality ingredients -- instead of the industrial kind -- in making gelato.
However, Armino speaks very little English, so as he explained the differences between French, Madagascar, and Mexican vanilla, we reached into the depths of our cerebrums for high school Italian class and listened intently. For the record, he uses French vanilla for his recipe.
Gelato-Go's menu is peppered with all kinds of weird concoctions, namely the hot gelato croissant with two scoops of your choice between a hot croissant and whipped cream ($6.90), gelato spaghetti made of spaghetti-shaped vanilla gelato served with fresh strawberries and topped with syrup ($7.90), and the sunny side up gelato with fiordilatte gelato topped with two fresh halved peaches and garnished with chocolate or whipped cream ($6.90).
In response to our puzzled look, Alvino told us "these kinds of things are what make one gelateria different from another in Italy. But they all have this kind of stuff."
Small cups start at $4.40, medium at $5.40, and large at $6.40. To-go containers (a regularity for South America and Europe) are also available.
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There are currently 12 flavors available, however Armino plans to make more flavors available when the team buys another display case.
To follow them on the web, visit gelatogo.net, on Twitter @gelatogo, and Facebook.
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