Robert Sigona looks around Gelotti—his family-run ice cream shop in Paterson, New Jersey. It’s the dead of winter, but people are still lined up for milkshakes, cookie sandwiches, and sundaes.
The shop looks a lot different than the Gelotti he remembers as a kid, but the feeling is exactly the same. Gelotti, still, fills nightly with locals. Their parents brought them to Gelotti as kids, and now, they’re passing on the tradition.
In many ways, that heritage has been the guiding light for Sigona, who took over the business from his father, Sal, in 2018. Nearly everything he puts into Gelotti now can be traced back to the shop where he grew up.
“My earliest memory is literally of the Gelotti workers teaching me how to write my name on a guest check,” Sigona told me. “When I was in 2nd grade, I did a project on how to make an ice cream cake. I still have that project,” he reminisced.
As Sigona grew older, he became more acquainted with the business. By 10, he’d dial up the shop phone after he got out of school and ask to speak to his dad. “I’d tell him to bring me home a cookies and cream milkshake,” he joked.
By 11, frustrated that his father sometimes denied his requests, he began asking the workers directly. “They knew exactly how I liked it, and there’s nothing my dad hates more than wasting food, so he’d be forced to bring it home to me even when he didn’t want to.”
At 12, Sigona was working in the shop. “My mom opened and ran the Gelotti’s in Caldwell, and we’d go after dinner sometimes. They were always super busy, so I would gladly sneak in the back to scrub buckets,” he said. “I got hooked almost instantly.”
Sigona admits that his early teen years were somewhat mischievous. “I was always grounded on Saturdays,” he laughed. His punishment? Go work at Gelotti alongside his dad. “It wasn’t much of a punishment. I fell in love with every aspect of the business.”
It’s a common story for children of entrepreneurs—you grow up in the business, work your first real job in the business, and learn the ins and outs of the business. However, oftentimes, the involvement stops there. For Sigona, it wasn’t until a particularly busy day of work that he realized Gelotti wasn’t just the world he was born into, but the one he intended to carry on. “When I was 14, I was in the warehouse lifting boxes all day and I just remember saying to myself, ‘I was born for this,’” he told me. “I’ll never forget that moment. My path was decided.”
Passing the Torch
Over time, Sigona transitioned from worker, to manager, and eventually, owner.
His leadership helped bring Gelotti into the new age while holding onto the tradition and quality that originally put the Paterson ice cream shop on the map. His first look at how innovation could catapult Gelotti came at the Caldwell shop, which his mother Roxane Sigona operated.
“My mom always wanted to come up with new things. My dad hated change,” he said. “I grew up watching that battle, but my mom eventually won when my dad saw the results.” It was clear that people loved the new items. Gelotti’s trademarked Lil Chippies were one of these creations. The miniature ice cream sandwiches, sold in the shop’s freezer, are still one of the store’s most popular items.
However, there is a fine line to tow. Modernizing the business should never come at the expense of tradition or quality. Sigona needed to find a way to evolve without losing what made Gelotti, Gelotti. How could the brand expand reach while keeping the made-in-house ethos alive?
One of the answers came when Sigona decided to establish the Gelotti baking program. He figured by baking the cookies for Lil Chippes, and the cakes for mix-ins, in-house, that he could expand offerings while holding onto homemade tradition. He bought an oven, hired Tahmina Akhter, a baker found through Paterson non-profit Eva’s Village, and began putting together the pieces that would come to shape his version of Gelotti. That baker has since developed over 50 recipes in just seven years.
The benefit is two-fold. By bringing all baking to the premises, it allows Sigona and the team full control of inventory—they can bake specifically for seasonal items, collaborations, and more. It also helps alleviate waste. If an excess of something is leftover, it can be converted into a mix-in for a limited time ice cream flavor. Finally, expanding production creates jobs. By partnering with Eva’s Village and local high schools, Sigona is able to provide work for locals, and uplift the community at large simultaneously.
Another point of innovative pride came a few years earlier when Sigona spearheaded the addition of vegan flavors to the Gelotti menu. “We wanted to offer something more than just Italian ice to the vegan community,” he said. A lengthy R&D process ensued—-the result was a creamy vegan ice cream base that he still uses today.
Gelotti offers a wide variety: sorbet, ice cream, yogurt, and, above all, authentic Italian gelato. Isn’t that just a fancy Italian word for ice cream? No. Gelato, as Sigona explains, is made with less cream, less air, and should never have eggs. But it’s the method that is perhaps the most crucial difference between the two. Gelato is churned slower than ice cream—meaning that less air is whipped into it, creating a creamier and denser texture.
Sigona has obsessively refined this process, and the results speak for themselves. “People say our gelato is just as good as in Italy,” he said, smiling. “Growing up, going to Sicily for vacation, that’s all I ever wanted… To serve the same quality gelato I’d eat over there.”
Today, Gelotti offers over 30 flavors of gelato alone.
He’s similarly meticulous about flavor creation in general. “It takes a lot of time to develop a new flavor,” he said. “With fruit flavors, you have to work really hard to balance the acidity, otherwise it curdles the milk.” Seasonality plays a role, too. In the summer, you might see fresh blueberries worked into a flavor. In the colder months, pumpkin pie and caramel apple come to play. “Creating new flavors is definitely one of my favorite parts of what I do,” Sigona told me.
Gelotti Will Always Be a Community Hub
What does community mean to Gelotti? Sigona’s answer is simple: “Everything.” He goes on to explain the importance of growing up in the shop—how community was always the driving force behind Gelotti’s success.
They sponsor local Little League teams. They donate to organizations like Little Sisters of the Poor. They work alongside local churches. Gelotti’s work with Table to Table focuses on feeding the homeless.
And they do it all without ever asking for anything back. “We care. We aren’t doing this for attention. We want to help their cause because it helps the community,” he said. “We aren’t Gelotti without the community. So, that’s why we do it.”
Gelotti has seen a lot of change throughout the decades. The Caldwell shop is no longer and has been unaffiliated since roughly 2011. The flagship store in Paterson has been completely renovated—the signature pine tree in the middle of the lot lives on only in memory. There’s two sides to it, though. For every change made to Gelotti, a piece of tradition is strengthened and preserved. “We’ve definitely seen a lot of changes over the years, but we’ve also seen a ton remain the same,” Sigona said. “What made us what we are—family, community, quality—it’s still a guiding light. That will never change.”
Sigona’s attention now shifts to eventual expansion. Under his leadership, Gelotti has seen employees stay for longer, promotions within the company, and a budding culture of hard work flourish throughout the ranks. The company-wide ethos of today’s Gelotti is practically begging to branch out. When the time comes, tradition and quality will, of course, be at the forefront.
The next generation of Gelotti leaders are beginning to work at the store, and Sigona has taken immense pride in leading them. “I’m guiding these younger kids, but it’s funny, because I still feel like a kid myself,” he said. “How can I not? I work in an ice cream shop.”
Peter Candia is the Food + Drink Editor at New Jersey Digest. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Peter found a passion for writing midway through school and never looked back. He is a former line cook, server and bartender at top-rated restaurants in the tri-state area. In addition to food, Peter enjoys politics, music, sports and anything New Jersey.
