Francesco Cataldo and his gelato making machine. (Photo: Daniel Maurer)
Salmon gelato, anyone?
Antica Gelateria Gentile will be serving up just that – plus Italian coffee and savory Puglian specialties like focaccia-style pizza – when it opens in Williamsburg in the next few weeks.
Antica Gelateria Gentile, a Bari gelateria that claims to have been scooping since 1880, will be among the first businesses to open in the retail galleria that’s calling itself The Artisan (a men’s clothing store, Gentry, opened there a few months ago).
Though it’s located on a desolate stretch of South 5th Street, right next to the Williamsburg Bridge, Francesco Cataldo is confident he can make his family-owned gelateria a destination. In Williamsburg, he notes, “People are careful about eating and dressing. People can understand that the gelato they’re going to eat here, they can’t find any other place.”
With the soft opening for friends and family still about 10 days away (and a grand opening expected around Jan. 10), we can’t yet vouch for the product, but the original location’s Tripadvisor reviews are definitely favorable. And though we’re not up on our Italian we’re guessing “dove il pistacchio diventa orgasmo” is high praise.
The 14-seat Williamsburg location – airy, gleaming white, and laid out with a long counter in front of an open production area, a la Laboratorio del Gelato – will serve 20 varieties of gelato, split between classics like pistachio and more “experimental” flavors like gorgonzola cheese. Sorbet will also be available in flavors like celery.
As for the salmon gelato, the Bari shop has offered it in two varieties – one made using boiled salmon that’s mixed with milk, and the other made more in the style of a sorbet. Cataldo recommends savoring it as an appetizer with bruschetta and vegetables.
In addition to the sweets, Gentile will also offer crepes, Veronero coffee drinks made (as the gelato is) using Italian machinery, and panzerotto, a small pizza that’s topped with the usual ingredients but then folded and fried into something resembling an empanada. Apparently, it’s all the rage in Italy right now. “It was always renowned in Bali,” said Francesco Marocco, the project manager whose company, Sinfonia Group, is bringing Gentile to Williamsburg. “There were always some special days of the year like Christmastime where some religious people ate it but because it’s so good and so cheap, now in Milan they’re crazy for panzerotto. People wait in the line for it.”
It remains to be seen whether that’ll happen in the dead of winter on South 5th Street, but if you’re craving salmon sorbet, you know where to find it.