Scoop Alert! Three New Locations for Artisan Gelato in Florence

New additions to the gelato scene in Florence seem to occur more and more in recent years and I do my best to keep up with them, given that quality gelato in this city is about as crucial as the air we breathe. With this post, I want to let you know about three new locations for three of the best artisan gelaterie in town.

Barroccino’s new location

Barroccino was started by Carmen and Lucia Scagnoli who are managers of hotels in Novoli—an area on the outskirts of Florence. In 2014, they manifested their dream of opening a quality, welcoming, neighborhood gelateria, which they named Barroccino after the gelato carts of the past that arrived in neighborhoods, bringing joy to children. They have two locations in Novoli and this year, along with their new partner, Pierpaolo Portogallo, they opened one in Florence’s historic center, on Via del Corso.

After Carmen met Pierpaolo Portogallo at a gelato festival and became aware of his magical gelato-making skills, she made him a partner in the business and he’s in charge of the menus at the three locations and is the manager at the Via del Corso shop. This location offers more international and innovative flavors, while at all three, the ingredients are seasonal and sourced from small, local producers with flavor offerings changing daily.

Pierpaolo told me the most unusual flavor he’s created is popcorn and Cinta Senese sausage. Initially this flavor raised doubts but then proved to be a huge success. He says the flavor he’s most attached to is “rubbed tomato”, inspired by the Florentine method of rubbing a tomato on bread to extract only the juice, not the peel. For this flavor, he uses organic Tuscan cherry tomatoes from a small, local, organic farm.

Another innovative one is his twist on the classic coffee flavor. He created a lighter colored coffee gelato that mimics a cappuccino. To make it, he cold brews specialty coffee, pre-infusing it for at least 48 hours, which allows him to extract only the fruitiest, sweetest, and most aromatic notes from the bean, avoiding the bitterness and dark color typical of espresso. The result is a light, creamy gelato with what he believes has a more elegant flavor profile than tradition gelato al caffè.

On my recent visit I tried the flavor called Le Tazzine a Marrakesh, which is made with Ethiopian coffee, orange peel, cinnamon, and chili. I chose to have sprinkles of nuts added, which I couldn’t help noting was totally different from the mass-produced sprinkles at those frozen yogurt places in the malls of my youth. This was freshly chopped, quality pistachios and hazelnuts from Italian farms.

Eating it was a gorgeous experience.

Barroccino offers affogato in a take-away coppetta. Affogato is now an essential offering for any gelateria in Firenze who wants to keep up with the times and do well, after Vivoli’s affogato insane virality. See my take on that here.

The ecstatic reviews from locals and tourists for the new Barroccino in Via del Corso don’t surprise me. Pierpaolo is a true gelato magician.

La Sorbettiera’s new location

The fourth La Sorbettiera in the city opened this year in Via dei Bardi, just across the street from the Ponte Vecchio on the Oltrarno side of the river.

La Sorbettiera first came across my radar in 2003—an unassuming little gelateria in Piazza Tasso at the back of the San Frediano neighborhood. At that time I was living in Settignano—a village in the Florentine hills. After dining with friends in the center on hot summer nights, we’d walk to Piazza Tasso at 11:00pm to get lemon & sage sorbet from La Sorbettiera.

Recently this gelateria has taken off. In the past few years, the owner, Antonio Ciabattoni, has opened new shops in Via Mazzetta (next to Piazza Santo Spirito), and in Via dei Banchi (next to Santa Maria Novella) and now this year in Via de Bardi (next to the Ponte Vecchio). His mission is “To produce artisanal gelato with real, seasonal, and sincere ingredients and to welcome you with a smile that feels like home.”

The La Sorbettiera I first knew in Piazza Tasso was so small you didn’t enter it, but instead viewed the modest number of flavors from the street. There were no crepes, sgropino, affogato, brioche, or frappe, but times they are a changing, and La Sorbettiera’s latest offering is “The Take Away Florence Affogato Cup”. Gelato with a shot of espresso served in a collectible cup that’s yours to take home.

Their waffles, which are made for cones or cups, are gluten free, home-made, and super yummy. In summer their sgroppino is concocted from their signature lemon & sage sorbet, vodka, and Prosecco.

I am particularly enamored of their dark chocolate sorbet called Catrame, made with chocolate from Peru.

Sbrino’s new location

Sbrino was begun in 2018 by two couples and now is run by just one of the couples, Giusi Laganga and Ario Meli. They opened their first shop on Via dei Serragli, near Piazza Santo Spirito where their lab is also located, followed by a smaller one on Via Senese near the Porta Romana. Then came two more—one in San Niccolò eighteen months ago, and this year in my neighborhood near the Porta di San Frediano.

This new location replaces the Dolce Emporio wine shop. It will need to rely primarily on locals, whereas the Via dei Serragli location gets lots of traffic from American students and tourists.

Sbrino’s manager, Natalya, shared their philosophy with me: “We are gelato artisans. Our goal is to respect the raw material in all its forms. Gelato is a living substance, and even if the recipe, or the person making it, is the same, the raw materials used each time decide the final result. This policy respects the uniqueness of our products and our people.”

The flavors are made with organic ingredients, starting with the milk, which is organic from Giusi’s parents’ farm. Their most popular flavors are cioccolato modicano (made with chocolate from Modica, Sicily) and nocciola del casentino (made with hazelnuts from the Casentino region of Tuscany.)

They of course offer the now-requisite affogato, and in winter they add vin brulé and hot chocolate to their menu, which most gelaterie don’t. In summer, in addition to regular granite, Sbrino has the unique offering of granite ubriache (drunk granitas) made with alcohol and mimicking drinks such as Negroni, Capirinha, and Mojito.

As I explained to some of my clients on a recent tour, Florence excels in excellent artisan gelato, but there’s plenty of fake gelato ready to snare the unschooled tourist with its neon colors shouting “pick me”. Please avert your gaze!

The approach you want to have with gelato is to view it as a destination, rather than just grabbing a cone or cup anywhere. With the expansion of these three artisan gelaterie, you won’t have to walk far, but do make a point to be discriminating and go an extra block to frequent one of these. For some more standouts, see my older article on gelato and granita in Florence.

What’s your favorite gelateria in Florence?