Gelato & Co. Italian creamery opens at SJ Marriott
Customers get an hour of free parking at the Marriott while they visit the new Gelato & Co. ice cream shop.
With an investment of $200,000, Italian creamery Gelato & Co. has officially opened its first location in Puerto Rico, as a joint venture with the San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, company officials announced Sunday.
The gelato shop, created by Italian Chef Stefano Franceschi, is known for its variety of flavors and use natural and genuine ingredients. The 26-flavor menu includes low-fat options, such as its fruit sorbets, made with local fruit.
“We’re very pleased to have this franchise in Puerto Rico, which is the second in the Caribbean. The first opened in 2013 in Grand Cayman, and a there is a third location that will soon open in Panama,” said José Joaquín Cruz, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing.
“The shop has an area of 700 square feet and generates five jobs now, but we hope to have the opportunity to create more in the coming weeks,” he added.
Franceschi began making ice cream in 1989 and opened his first store in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 1998.
Gelato & Co. has 26 flavors among which are: coffee, caramel, pistachio, yogurt and caramel, “bacio,” “stracciatella” and others that will change periodically. Sorbets feature a variety of flavors such as lemon, mango, papaya, banana, strawberry, orange and guava, among others.
The store opening was one of two announcements Marriott officials made Sunday, when they also took the opportunity to unveil the recently completed double-slide installed in the hotel’s pool area. The new slide is part of a $15 million renovation of the iconic Condado-area beachfront property, as this media outlet reported in May.
