Specialty ice-cream and gelato shops were unfamiliar to Bharathi Ghattamaneni before she moved to Melbourne from India for university in 2019. But she quickly discovered the city’s vast scoop shop scene. “I saw all these crazy flavours and I was so intrigued,” Ghattamaneni tells Broadsheet. “I remember a white chocolate and basil combo that changed my interpretation of ice-cream.”

Before Isaac Rodrigues, who grew up in Melbourne, met Ghattamaneni at uni, ice-cream meant supermarket tubs and the occasional pint of Ben and Jerry’s. “I introduced him to Pidapipo, Seven Apples, Messina and basically the concept of non-Coles ice-cream,” Ghattamaneni says.

The pair fell hard for all things specialty ice-cream and gelato. Their shared love and curiosity culminated into Good Daze Canteen, a Fitzroy gelato shop they opened together at the end of October.

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The canteen has 21 flavours inspired by sweets from around the world. There’s Thai mango sticky rice where coconut rice pudding is swirled into Alphonso mango sorbet; Iceland- and Sweden-inspired skyr yoghurt and lingonberries; and the Aussie Milo Milk Crunch, which also nods to Milo dinosaurs, an iced drink commonly found in Singapore and Malaysia. (All dairy scoops are technically gelato, though the pair prefer to refer to their product as ice-cream due to the non-Italian flavours).

Lactose-averse friends can pop a $1 Lacteeze at the counter, or order from the seven vegan scoops, including Korean fruit-punch-inspired hwachae and a miso peanut butter caramel inspired by a viral New York Times cookie.

The venue, which previously housed Coffee Chai Bake, came with purple walls and an exposed brick wall. Good Daze kept the brick, remodelled the counter space and fitted it out with a communal bench.

Before opening the business, Ghattamaneni and Rodrigues bought an ice-cream machine and attended a gelato-making class at the William-Angliss Institute, funded by savings Rodrigues had from his years working at McDonald’s. In August last year, they started doing pop-ups in an old hand-painted ice-cream cart at shopping centres The Glen and Moorabbin DFO, tub deliveries to friends and family, and events.

Back then, the menu was divided into “regular” flavours – chocolate, strawberry and vanilla – and “stuff that [they] actually wanted to do,” says Ghattamaneni. The latter included uncommon flavours like saffron and rosewater; a mash-up of bastani sonnati (a Persian ice-cream) and rasmalai (a milk-based Indian dessert); hibiscus and rose, inspired by an Egyptian drink; and chai.

“It was really out there – it didn’t sell that well. People who really appreciated it were foodies like us. We were in the suburbs, most people in these malls were like, ‘My kid wants vanilla’.” But at the Fitzroy store, they serve their favourites.

Good Daze Canteen
316 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

Hours:
Thurs 5pm–11pm
Fri 5pm–midnight
Sat midday–midnight
Sun midday–10.30pm

gooddazecanteen.com