Twenty years ago, Nick Palumbo moved from Adelaide to Sydney, following his passion for food and opening the very first Gelato Messina in Darlinghurst.
Fast-forwarded to 2022, Messina has grown to 26 stores, 40 unique flavour combinations and amassed a cult following, willing to wait in line and travel the country to get their hands on a scoop of the sweet, handmade gold that is a Gelato Messina.
Until now, Adelaideans have only been able to enjoy Messina on a trip interstate or when an eagerly awaited pop-up arrives in town, but Nick and his brother and now business partner, Danny, are planning to bring their cult ice cream to their home city for the first time.
Set to open in Kent Town in mid-2023, Nick and Danny will bring the brand full circle, returning to the city they left all those years ago with their heads held high.
Taking over the old Alchemy IronWorks site on The Parade, the ice creamery will also boast a restaurant at the rear making it a one-stop-shop for dinner and dessert.
Aside from their innovative and mouth-watering flavour combinations (think honey joy, mango pancake and fairy bread), it’s the way it’s made that makes Gelato Messina a cut above the rest.
Quality and sustainability are at the forefront of everything Nick and Danny do, with the pair always striving for what’s best. Almost every product used throughout the ice cream-making process is done in-house with the brothers even starting their own dairy farm and hazelnut farm to ensure they could control the quality of the produce they were using.
When placing your order and you choose to go to the whole hog and add in some extra chunky toppings (which is highly advised, by the way), know that these are also of the highest quality and all handmade by the team.
The Messina team proudly make visitors to their website aware that they only use the best stating “The brownies, the pralines, the pastries, the fudges and everything else in-between is made by our chefs at Messina HQ. We bake our own apple pies, we juice real mint leaves for the choc mint; we even make our own dulce de leche.
“We make the most honest, highest-quality gelato we can and do our best to make sure that what you are tasting is the real deal.”
Gelato Messina is set to open at 44 The Parade, Kent Town in mid-2023.
Keep up to date by following along on Facebook and Instagram and find out more about the Messina story on the website.