Hot Pizza, Cool Gelato: How Pizzeria Pezzo Added Gelato to the Menu

Making authentic gelato in-house is proving a hit with customers at Pizzeria Pezzo in Minnesota, USA. For this small pizza chain, gelato has become a way to keep the menu exciting and profitable.

Standing out in a crowded market

Pizza is a fiercely competitive business, so traditional pizzerias have to keep lifting their game. Pizzeria Pezzo has locations in White Bear Lake and Woodbury, suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul. It specialises in coal-fired pizzas made with fresh ingredients, along with Chicago-style deep-dish pizzas named after Chicago neighbourhoods such as Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast. Appetisers, pasta and sandwiches toasted in the 850°F oven round out the menu.

From a dessert fiend’s idea to the menu

The restaurant already made tiramisu and cannoli from scratch, but its gelato was not made in-house. The push to change that came from owner Keri Bougie, who calls herself a dessert fiend. She spent two college summers in Italy, hopping between gelaterias to compare them, and when she became a co-owner she wondered why the restaurant was not making its own. She began teaching herself at home with books and home ice cream makers.

After testing several machines, the team chose the Carpigiani Ready batch freezer. It mixes, heats and freezes in the same cylinder, and its Hard-O-Tronic technology controls consistency automatically and signals when the product is finished. The control panel stays accessible while mix is being added. Their manager said the machine is user-friendly and easy to train staff on.

Bring it to your business in Australia

A restaurant does not need to become a gelateria to profit from gelato. A compact batch freezer, good ingredients and a little training can turn dessert into a point of difference. Explore Carpigiani gelato machines, or see our foodservice solutions for restaurants and cafes.

Source: Carpigiani news. Rewritten for Australia by Majors Group.