How old is gelato?

[TAPrice]

Does anyone know when gelato started to be widely produced and sold commercially, both in Italy and the United States. I was reading an oral history of a local, century-old gelateria and learned that they introduced scooped gelati only in 1979. Before that, they had sliced ice cream. Did commercial equipment just start to arrive in the U.S. around then?

[divina]

I will check my notes, I know when the cone was invented, and who was the first Italian to make ice cream in Paris-

I know Buontalenti, the architect made gelato in Florence and that was a LONG time ago!

commercial ice cream ( gelato) shops as we know them today?

[Pontormo]

I'm not going to attempt to answer the question regarding Italian gelato since the little research I've done involved writers who repeat the same sources uncritically, tracing origins to flavored ices and snow in Ancient Rome or the Arabs in Sicily in the early medieval period.

Regarding the United States, I wonder when this century-old establishment first began calling itself a gelateria. I'm a little skeptical and think you need to distinguish between the sliced ice cream (chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, no?) and what they now call gelato. I imagine there is an intersection of different factors that include increased popularity of American tourism to Italy (i.e., when did every wedding you attended end up with a postcard from Positano or Tuscany?) among the classes Henry James rarely addresses, study programs abroad in Italy, the path that Bergman forged in making foreign films fashionable among intellectuals, the rise of Haagen-Dasz and the coffee house. It was after the democratization of the croissant and baguette by Vie de France.

The first gelato I recall ever eating in the US was at Dolce Vita (see paragraph above) in Venice, California and I spent formative years in an Italian-American neighborhood where lemon ices were popular. It was well after my first trip to Vivoli, so I want to say around 1983. On Madison Avenue, I am pretty sure I lined up at the one Italian bar I knew about before that date, but I don't recall if they had gelato up front at the same time they began offering espresso drinks and panini in egg-glazed football-shaped rolls w a slice of prosciutto for around $4. Anyone recall that place? Or when the Roman gelateria (Palm?) opened (briefly?) in Manhattan?

Edited September 7, 2007 by Pontormo (log)

[TAPrice]

Regarding the United States, I wonder when this century-old establishment first began calling itself a gelateria. I'm a little skeptical and think you need to distinguish between the sliced ice cream (chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, no?) and what they now call gelato.

This place did and still does call itself an "Italian ice cream parlor." Thanks for all the great info.

It was well after my first trip to Vivoli, so I want to say around 1983.  On Madison Avenue, I am pretty sure I lined up at the one Italian bar I knew about before that date, but I don't recall if they had gelato up front at the same time they began offering espresso drinks and panini in egg-glazed football-shaped rolls w a slice of prosciutto for around $4.

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So maybe the early 80s is when gelato arrived in the U.S.? Who would have thought that culturally it should be lumped in with Miami Vice and Flock of Seagulls?