Gelataio/Gelateria in the United States

About 2003 my husband and I came up with the idea of wanting to open a gelateria in the United States. For those of you who have not been to Italy, a gelateria is an Italian ice cream shop. Gelato is different from American ice cream, in that gelato has less air and fat compared to its American counterpart, therefore being healthier and having a creamier texture.

So I did a lot of research, and we had thought we had found someone who had experience running a gelateria and making gelato, a gelato artisian/gelataio. He could speak a pretty good English, lived in the area, plus had a brother living in the United States who had dual citizenship, so getting a visa for him wouldn’t be too much of a problem. In January 2005 the four of us; my husband and I and this guy with the experience (gelataio) and his wife went down to Rimini Italy for an expo of pastries and gelato.

After the expo, my husband asked this gentleman to get some additional information, since he has the experience and knows exactly what equipment is needed etc. This again was back in January 2005. He kept putting it off, basically telling us not interested now, without coming right out and telling us.

Now we’re basically back to almost where we started, except we do have the two years worth of research that I have done, market analysis, business plan almost done, but are in need of a gelataio/in-house gelato artisian. My husband has pretty much given up on this gelateria project because of this, but I am not giving up so easily. I have put so much work into this project to give up, and do feel it can over very well. I want to go forward with this project, I know there are long hours that would still be involved, from opening the gelateria to running it; also providing other products in addition to gelato, for example Italian style pannini (sandwiches) and also maybe coffee and soft drinks. I have experience working 12-15 hours a day, excellent customer service experience (12 years experience), plus 2 years supervisor experience. I feel this would be an excellent opportunity for me to enhance and learn new business skills, management, etc. I have a city already chosen. I am not going to list it here, but I will say this it is in the southern part of the United States, along the Gulf Coast, received a substantial amount of tourists every year, and a downtown that is growing. So opening a gelateria NOW would be getting in on the ground floor so to speak of an expanding downtown, getting in on the ground floor so to speak.

I am still searching for a gelataio/gelato artisian/someone who has experience making gelato. So please get in touch with me! Also, donations are more then welcome to get this project started, there is a make a donation button on the right hand side of this blog, underneath my profile.