THE PEOPLE BEHIND CAMPANA AND SPELLA CAFFè ARE OPENING A PORTLAND GELATERIA

Almost 20 years ago, while coffee roaster Andrea Spella was opening his original eponymous espresso cart, the Spella Caffè owner encountered a sorbetto that would become something of an old friend. He was trying to find gelatos for his affogato service, and he stumbled upon Stella Gelato while at a Market of Choice in 2006. “The grapefruit-Campari sorbetto won me over,” he says.

Thus, he started serving Stella gelato affogato at his original cart, with a range of flavors: stracciatella, hazelnut or pistachio, and Campari-grapefruit sorbetto as a dairy-free option. Years later, then-Oregonian writer Karen Brooks called Stella the state’s best gelato, specifically noting the affogato service at Spella. “The results taste like some new coffee ice cream off the atomic charts,” she wrote in 2009.

In 2022, Stella owner David Feinstein was ready to retire, but Spella wasn’t ready to say goodbye to his gelato. So, instead of finding a new supplier, Spella bought the business from Feinstein entirely. Now, he and Campana chef George Kaden are making gelato out of Northeast Alberta production facility, which will begin serving scoops out of a takeout window later this spring.

Pronto Gelato has already begun filling tubs for Kaden’s Woodlawn Italian restaurant and both of Spella Caffè’s brick-and-mortar cafe locations, churning flavors like Oregon hazelnut, lime-ginger sorbetto, and stracciatella. Kaden is handling most of the actual gelato recipe testing — while the two are working off Feinstein’s gelato base recipe, Kaden has developed all new recipes for the flavors, pulling from his years making gelato and sorbetto for his trattoria.

Before opening Campana, Kaden spent time at lauded New York Tuscan restaurant Hearth, as well as other Italian spots in both New York and New Jersey. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kaden began experimenting with gelato making, and it became a fixation. “Like everyone else, I had quite a bit of time, so I bought a bunch of used dessert books and a small gelato machine,” Kaden says. “While I was working on what are now Campana’s gelato recipes, it was all I could talk about. This constant babbling prompted Andrea to approach me with this specific opportunity.”

At Campana, Kaden swaps out rotating flavors for the dessert menu, which have included peach, hazelnut, and white chocolate-raspberry. At Pronto, Kaden and Spella landed on a lineup of about 12 to 13 core gelatos and sorbettos, with the option to add in a few seasonal variations. “We want to focus on the quality, not have too expansive of a menu,” Spella says. “We don’t want to have the old school Greek diner menu with 100 items on it.”

The gelatos start with Oregon dairy — milk and a little cream — with flavors often highlighting local products: The hazelnut uses Oregon hazelnut butter, the strawberries and cream uses Oregon strawberries, and the marionberry sorbetto uses... you get it. “I’m Sicilian, and to me, the Italian way is using what you have locally and taking the best of that,” Spella says. “We’re not shipping dairy from Italy.”

Once the gelato window opens, visitors will be able to get scoops and cones directly from the gelato factory, as well as affogato. Unlike the typical Italian gelato shop, Pronto will finish scoops with a handful of different optional toppings — think Oregon-made Tom Bumble Crumble (kind of a fancy Butterfinger variant), some sort of magic shell, and sprinkles. While the location is a production facility without indoor seating, Pronto Gelato’s 1,100 square foot outdoor patio will be a scene, with plenty of seating and occasional live music. “It’ll be really festive, really fun,” Spella says.

Pronto Gelato is now available at Campana and Spella; the gelato window will open around June 2024 at 4205 NE Alberta Street in Portland.

2024-04-15T16:16:53Z dg43tfdfdgfd