First Look: Mapo Is Scooping on Oxford Street, Just in Time for Summer

“I’m not a super sweet dude,” Matteo Pochintesta says. “Which is kinda weird, considering I have ice-cream stores.” It is kinda weird for the owner of Mapo, but it also checks out – his scoops are smooth, creamy, complex and moreish. And they’re far from too sweet.

Mapo’s gelato is always churned in-store: on King Street in Newtown, Campbell Parade in Bondi and now a sunny slice on the Darlinghurst end of Oxford Street.

“It’s a nice neighbourhood, we were looking forward to this,” Pochintesta shares. “For once we’re opening at the beginning of summer. This [store] only took three times longer than expected, but it’s nice to open for summer.”

Right now, in the wide window, there’s a tray of bananas looking ripe and ready. “That’s the goal, to try to use the sweetness – to use the fruit at its maximum amount of ripeness, to reduce the amount of sugar added.”

Mapo’s flavours range from the classics (chocolate, hazelnut, “better than Nutella”, fior di latte, and salted pistachio) to house specials (Pepe Saya salted caramel, golden kiwi, pear and cinnamon, black sesame, and bush honey and Aussie lavender). And while each of the three stores have the same core menu, there are suburb-specific scoops too. And exclusively in Darlo, granita made daily.

“Every day we’re going to melt it, rechurn it, have it fresh. Granita is a bit more complex to make consistently. So here we blend it from the very beginning, that was the idea from the get-go.” The flavour changes every month, and first up is a zingy watermelon and lime that’s ace as is, or topped with the mascarpone soft serve.

On weekends, you’ll want the “full Sicilian set”: granita, cream and brioche. Or take Pochintesta’s advice: “I love the combination of freshness and creaminess, so I always go for one scoop, two flavours – fruit and a milky flavour. Have both together, you get this contrast between the two, it’s always a win.”

The Darlo store is bright, with a yellow-tiled counter and glassy facade with a bright-green hedge of tiles. Tree-stump-esque stools – by Special Studio, a circular design studio in New Zealand – sit out the front. And while Darlo’s quietly opened last week, it’s already buzzy from the mid-arvo. The patch of Oxford Street will only get buzzier, with scaffolding coming down and tenants gearing up to open in the Oxford & Foley development.

“We are looking forward to meet all the communities around, there’s a lot of beautiful businesses around here too that we already knew, but we would like to collaborate soon,” Pochintesta says. “We’re looking forward to Mardi Gras as well, it’s going to be beautiful here.”

Lock that plan in, Sydney: one scoop, two flavours, with an ace view of the parade. After a summer of granita.

Mapo
72 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst

maponewtown.com.au
@mapo_gelato