When Nick Palumbo was a kid, he’d regularly pass by the Alchemy Ironworks site in Kent Town on his way into the city. Decades on, after moving to Sydney to launch Messina, which would go on to become Australia’s most raved about gelato shop, with 30 stores across the country, two in Hong Kong and its own dairy farm, he’s finally bringing the brand to home soil – in that old ironworks site.
Apart from the occasional pop-up, it’s Adelaide’s first taste of Messina (named after the Sicilian town Palumbo’s parents migrated to Australia from), 22 years after it launched on the east coast.
“We’ve been wanting to open for about 10 years but had not found the right site,” says Palumbo, who co-owns Messina with his brother Danny, head chef Donato Toce and Declan Lee. “It popped up during Covid – we lost another few years, hence the delay – but we’ve finally come home.
“I used to live 200 metres away from this site and love the idea of having our first store in Kent Town, where it would become a gelato destination for customers to stumble across and explore, rather than in a main restaurant strip.”
The shop opens today with a 40-flavour cabinet featuring 35 signature flavours and five limited editions, such as pear and white-balsamic sorbet, and a crow-eater special called "I Know The Owners" made with custard-tart gelato, crumbled biscuit and cafe-latte fudge, available this week only. There’s also a selection of gelato cakes and jars of house-made dulce de leche and choc-hazelnut spread to take home.
All the ingredients – including the brownies, the pralines, the pastries and apple pie – are made by chefs at Messina HQ in Sydney’s inner west. The gelato is then churned fresh at Kent Town, using high-fat milk produced from jersey cows at the brand’s dairy farm in country Victoria.
The shop’s interior follows the same mid-century aesthetic seen at Messina’s stores around the country, this time designed by Adelaide-born Sans-Arc Studio and featuring timber panelling, terrazzo-speckled flooring and bench seating, and textured white walls inside and out.
Midway through the year, it’ll be joined by a restaurant next door – owned by Palumbo’s childhood friends Claudio Ferraro (one of the founders of Cibo Espresso, and current co-owner of Valentino’s) and Eugenio Maiale, who ran Adelaide restaurants Citrus and Auge before opening A Tavola in Sydney (the pasta spot went into liquidation late last year). While the restaurant’s name and menu are still under wraps, the team told Broadsheet last year to expect “lots of fresh pasta made in-house”.
Messina opens today at 44 The Parade West, Kent Town.
