Oscar Brenelli, Alberto Malavasi and Mirko Di Lorenzo outside their new ice cream shop in King Street, Hammersmith
A new business in Hammersmith is passionate about giving its customers a frosty reception.
That’s not to say the staff of Gela.Ti.Amo are icy. Far from it – they just love to serve you ice cream.
Tucked along the western end of King Street, the gelateria, or ice cream parlour to the non-Neopolitan, opened its doors last week and caused quite the frozen furore by giving passing punters a free cone.
A week later and co-owner Oscar Brenelli is mulling how to get customers to buy their other foods and not just ice cream. The shop also sells a range Italian-influenced paninis, salads and delicious-looking cakes, plus a range of quality coffees.
“We know in the winter we will not sell the same quantity of ice cream as in the summer so we have to think differently,” he explains.
But it is hard for customers to look beyond the colourfully enticing range of twenty different ice cream flavours, including banana, mango, stracciatella, pistachio and sorbets, which Oscar says are all made fresh every day, using only fresh fruit.
Gela.Ti.Amo was formed when Venetian-born Oscar and co-owner Alberto Malavas, from Modena, met at a college course on how to make ice cream back in Italy last February.
The pair, from furniture and logistics backgrounds respectively, decided to open up an ice cream business in London. Alberto’s cousin knew the landlord of the King Street shop, the pair liked it and the business was born, adding to the array of eating opportunities on the bustling stretch.
Feedback so far has been good and Oscar and his staff, five out of six of whom are Italian, have served a lot of ice cream which has been consumed with equal gusto by delighted customers.
The ice cream is also available by the tub for those who want take the Gela.Ti.Amo experience home.
Gela.Ti.Amo is located at 192 King Street. Follow them on Twitter: @GelaTiAm0.
