The matcha gentle serve from Dolcezza. {Photograph} by Elisa Correa.
In the case of the genesis for a brand new eating idea, each restaurateur has a narrative. For Dolcezza gelateria and café co-founders Violeta Edelman and Robb Duncan, theirs begins within the Amazonian rainforest—with 80 milliliters of psychedelic ayahuasca tea.
“You drink it, and you’ve got a really deep, existential expertise,” Duncan recollects from the 10-night convention 22 years in the past, the place he first met and fell in love with Edelman. “There are some hardcore classes that you simply get.”
After that “journey,” the 2 turned inseparable, touring by boat to Edelman’s residence nation of Argentina the place they tasted the “most wonderful” gelato they’d ever had. In 2004, they opened up the primary Dolcezza location in a 300-square-foot Georgetown storefront—and, now, the couple is getting ready to open their sixth location in mid-March.
From its conception, Dolcezza has sourced its components from native farmers primarily based on seasonal availability, adopting a “as soon as it’s gone, it’s gone” mentality. A number of the gelateria’s core flavors embrace dulce de leche, stracciatella, and single-origin chocolate. In honor of the couple’s origin story, many taste descriptions have on-theme references, like a declaration that espresso and chocolate are two of Dolcezza’s “favourite authorized medicine,” and the reassurance that “no paddles are wanted” for a “journey” on coconut gelato.
In 2020, after appreciable development throughout the native market, Duncan and Edelman have been compelled to close down 5 Dolcezza places—however now, six years later, Edelman says that they’re prepared for a comeback.
“The pandemic was so brutal, and it took us a second to really feel just like the enterprise was robust sufficient to proceed increasing,” she says. “Now it appears like we’re in place once more, so we’re attempting to develop once more advert see the way it goes.”
For Edelman and Duncan, the brand new H Avenue location feels extra like a homecoming than a brand new frontier. In spite of everything, Dolcezza obtained its begin promoting gelato at farmers markets throughout the DC space, together with one within the H Avenue hall.
“We’ll at all times keep in mind establishing the tent, establishing the desk, and promoting the gelato to the entire neighborhood on H Avenue,” says Duncan. “The entire distributors have been like, ‘this is without doubt one of the most wonderful, wealthy, loyal, and supportive communities of all of the farmers markets.’” Edelman provides that the H Avenue neighborhood is “underserved” on the gelato entrance, and she or he and Edelman sit up for remedying that.
Duncan says that company can count on lots of the acquainted flavors and brews from the opposite 5 places. However Dolcezza on H Avenue may also convey a brand new twist to the creamery: a small collection of soft-serve gelato.
Whereas the Duncan and Edelman have beforehand examined out gentle serve preparations, H Avenue will go full-throttle. Highlights embrace house-ground pistachio butter gelato—that includes pistachios from Sicily, Syria, Greece, Iran, and Turkey—with a salty, caramelized pistachio-crumble topping, in addition to a gentle and candy passionfruit mousse gelato with pops of tang from contemporary seeds. They’ve additionally test-run flavors like matcha and doughnut.
These flavors and format remind the couple of taking clandestine gelato samples, straight from the machine, of their first Georgetown outpost. In the case of flavors and toppings, Duncan says the soft-serve might be a spot for him and Edelman to “freak out” with creativity.
Comfortable serve “permits you to get that contemporary, wonderful texture and temperature,” he says. “As a result of it’s so heat, the flavors instantly soften in your mouth.”
