Since launching in Sydney in 2002, the east coast’s favourite gelato chain Messina has expanded to 28 stores across the country (including 19 in New South Wales alone) and two in Hong Kong. But, apart from the occasional pop-up here, Adelaide has been waiting a while for a taste of Messina on home soil. Good things come to those who wait, though: come spring, Gelato Messina will not only open its first permanent Adelaide store – it’ll come with an adjoining Italian restaurant, too.
The new venue will be in the old Alchemy Ironworks site on The Parade in Kent Town. Founder Nick Palumbo grew up in Adelaide, and would regularly drive past the site before he moved to Sydney to launch the gelateria, which has since developed a cult-like following.
The Adelaide shop will have the brand’s 40-flavour cabinet, including 35 signature flavours and five rotating specials, a Messina spokesperson confirmed to Broadsheet. The latter might include the likes of vanilla gelato smashed with apple pie and layered with dulce de leche; fairy bread cookie pie; or strawberry gelato with strawberry fudge and strawberry-glazed doughnuts. There'll also be a selection of “architectural” gelato cakes.
All the ingredients – from the dulce de leche to the brownies, the pralines, the pastries and apple pie – are made by the chefs at Messina HQ in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west. The gelato is then churned fresh on the premises, using Messina Milk produced from jersey cows at the brand’s own dairy farm in Victoria.
For the restaurant concept, Palumbo and his business partners (who include his brother Danny, head chef Donato Toce and Declan Lee) have teamed up with old friends Eugenio Maiale (who owned Adelaide restaurant Citrus before opening A Tavola in Sydney) and Claudio Ferraro (one of the founders of Cibo Espresso, and current co-owner of Valentino’s). And you can expect the dishes to follow Messina’s from-scratch mentality. While the menu is still under wraps, we’re told to expect “lots of fresh pasta made in-house”.
The site, which is designed by architect Matiya Marovich of Sans–Arc Studio, will feature cream brickwork on the exterior, streams of natural light, four-metre-high ceilings with timber window frames, and a large open-plan patio.
The Gelato Messina store is expected to open at 44 The Parade West, Kent Town in October. The restaurant will open in November.
