Central Ohio's Growing Gelato Scene
Bethia shares her favorite gelato, plus local food and drink news.
Central Ohio’s Growing Gelato Scene
By Bethia Woolf
Over the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of gelato shops in Central Ohio, and I’ve been on a mission to try as many as possible. Fortunately, my favorite—at least so far—is close to home.
While gelato is essentially the Italian word for ice cream, traditional American ice cream and gelato are slightly different animals. It’s easy to go down a deep rabbit hole trying to understand the differences between them. After all, both are frozen dairy desserts.
Typically, gelato uses more milk and less cream, while ice cream is more heavily cream-based and often includes egg yolks. This means that gelato is lower in fat. The churning method also differs, with gelato having less air incorporated into it. Gelato is also typically served at a slightly warmer temperature. The result is a silkier and less ballable consistency. Gelato connoisseurs also say flavors come through more cleanly without as much fat coating the taste buds.
My favorite gelato made locally is at Piazza Pelino in the Short North, located next to The Lox Bagel Shop. Piazza Pelino’s gelato is made with Snowville Creamery milk and cream combined with high-quality ingredients from Italy. The shop typically offers six rotating flavors, which usually include a chocolate flavor, Sicilian Pistachio di Bronte (DOP), coffee and its signature fior di latte (meaning “flower of milk”). When the pistachio is unavailable, you’ll typically find another nut flavor such as hazelnut or amaretto.
In addition to the gelato, Piazza Pelino usually has a couple of fruit-flavored, dairy-free sorbettos that change with the seasons. Co-owner Tony Pelino recommends combining one of the sorbettos with the fior di latte. Currently, the shop is offering a blood orange sorbetto that, paired with the fior di latte, makes for a creamsicle-like combination.
In May, the shop added a variety of housemade sauces and toppings. The crumble toppings are all made from recipes used at Pelino’s Pasta and include amaretti cookie crumb, dark chocolate crumble and toffee bits.
At the Short North location, you can buy gelato straight from the churn. You can also find a limited selection of Pelino’s gelato pints at Littleton’s Market.
Here are some other Central Ohio gelato stops:
Gelatolicious, located inside The Pancake House in Lewis Center, makes its gelato in-house. Popular flavors include caramel cookie and Funfetti. The ricotta and fig flavor as well as the pistachio are worth a try.
Caffe DaVinci’s gelateria, located inside the Upper Arlington restaurant, is the original Columbus gelato spot. It leans toward more American-influenced flavors such as salty Snickers and chocolate peanut butter, and tends to offer more flavors with mix-ins than other shops. The lemon cookie is very popular, and there’s also a solid range of fruit sorbettos. The peanut butter flavors are a particular standout.
Ciao Cafe has two locations: the original in downtown Delaware and a newer spot onThurman Avenue in German Village, next to Fox in the Snow. The shop is owned by Tani and Eva Berberi, who are originally from Albania but spent more than a decade living in Italy, where Eva worked in gelaterias and learned the craft. Gelato flavors range from fruit-based and traditional offerings like tiramisu and stracciatella to rotating seasonal options.
Coppa Gelato has been a Westerville staple for more than a decade. The pistachio and stracciatella are both perennial favorites, but the shop also offers less traditional options like Andes Mint and bananas Foster.
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Dispatch from Abroad
Crossing Borders for Croissants
Erin here reporting from Geneva, Switzerland, where I’ve been visiting family friends.
While my trip to this gorgeous land of mountains, lakes and fast trains has been more about seeing good friends and scenery than food tourism, I found this amusing: One of our hosts in Geneva drives to France to get our morning pastries. He does this not because they are better (he says they are largely the same in quality) but because they are so much cheaper than pastries procured in Switzerland. That made me wonder: Are any of you crossing borders, say into Michigan or Kentucky or even Canada, for some delicious thing that’s cheaper or better overall?
But back to those wonderful, worth-the-drive French pastries. One in particular caught my affection, an almond and chocolate croissant that was to die for. Back home, I rarely see that combination of flavors in one pastry. I hope someone will get on it soon.—Erin Edwards
Notes
Around the Columbus Food & Drink Scene
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants is bringing Hudson 29 Kitchen + Drink to Bexley’s new mixed-use development, The Fitzgerald, at 2200 E. Main St. The Bexley location will mark the third Hudson 29 in Central Ohio, joining New Albany and Upper Arlington. Look for a spring 2027 opening.
Local Matters, the Columbus nonprofit dedicated to creating “healthier communities through food access, education, advocacy and food rescue,” will be sunsetting its programming on June 6 after 18 years of service in the community. In a statement, the organization cited the recent loss of major funding as one reason behind the decision. Read more here. Local Matters was founded in 2008 by Michael Jones and Noreen Warnock.
Louisville-based Biscuit Belly officially opens today in Grandview at 1417 W. Fifth Ave., formerly home to Hot Chicken Takeover. The grand opening celebration takes place Friday, June 5. Learn more here.
The Iraqi coffee shop Al Sindabad Cafe is now open at 4562 Cemetery Road in Hilliard. The cafe offers Arabic coffee, matcha lattes, bubble waffles, crepes, pastries, ice cream and more.
I totally agree on pelinos! I've had a bunch of gelato around Columbus and some is delicious but basically just seems like ice cream in taste and texture. Pelinos stood out as a distinctly different product, and it checked all my boxes on texture and flavor.