G.S. Gelato has given people a taste of Italian ice cream

FORT WALTON BEACH — Starting a new business always has a certain level of risk.

But Guido and Simona Tremolini left successful careers in Italy and moved to a foreign country where they did not speak the language to open G.S. Gelato and Desserts in Fort Walton Beach 14 years ago.

“We came with a dream and a goal to introduce Italian gelato to the American market,” Simona Tremolini said. “At the time, nobody knew what gelato was. At that time, we didn’t speak one word of English. We were young and bold.”

That boldness has paid off. While their two San Gelato Cafes at Silver Sands Factory Stores and The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island are the most visible parts of their business, their company has been growing behind the scenes since its inception.

About the same time San Gelato was getting its start in 1997, the Tremolinis started to develop their wholesale and distribution business, called G.S. Gelato. It started out by getting their products into local restaurants.

G.S. Gelato eventually started working with national distributor U.S. Food Service, and now its gelatos and sorbets are served around the country at The Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill restaurants and at Universal Studios.

While that enabled the business to grow, it did not really allow the G.S. Gelato name to spread. In 2008, G.S. Gelato moved into its new 25,000 square foot manufacturing plant off Green Acres Road, and last year began packaging its gelatos and sorbets in pint containers to sell in stores.

Since then, grocery stores in California, New Jersey and Louisiana have started to sell G.S. Gelato products. Just this past week, Winn-Dixie announced that it would begin selling G.S. Gelato in 260 of its stores in the Southeast.

“(G.S. Gelato) been growing without having a face,” Simona said. “Now we are ready to give G.S. Gelato a face. The goal for G.S. Gelato, which will always be our manufacturing and wholesale company, will be really to bloom and to show its identity through the retail channel while we will keep continuing building our own stores as well as selling franchises. There’s a lot to do.”

“I think this will help us in building brand recognition,” she added. “We have already acquired some big presence in the Louisiana market and into the Alabama market. Winn Dixie will definitely help us strengthen our position in order for us to be able to grow and approach other major national grocery chains.”

Gelato is traditional Italian ice cream, although Simona said there are some substantial differences between gelato and American ice cream. Gelato is low in fat, but she described it as being very rich, smooth and velvety.

G.S. Gelato imports all of its ingredients from Italy, which helps give its flavors a defined taste.

“Gelato has become the evolution of ice cream,” Simona said. “You have regular ice cream, then you have super premium ice cream and then you have gelato. Gelato and super premium ice cream are very high quality ice creams, but gelato has the advantage of not having all the fat you find in super premium ice creams.”

G.S. Gelato produces 12 to 15 tons of gelato a day in dozens of flavors.

“I think we are really at the perfect place at the perfect time,” Simona said. “Our business in the past couple of years has been absolutely recession proof. We have double digit increases every single month and 2009 was our best year ever. But 2010 will be our best year ever.”