Gelarto

If I could give this place zero stars I would. This happens to also be the first review of a restaurant I have ever posted online. My experience today struck a nerve that made me realize I shouldn’t stay silent. My family and I were visiting Wilmington for the day, and we were excited to learn that a local gelato shop had multiple vegan options for our 5 year-old son with dairy and egg allergies. We walked into the store and asked the person behind the counter about any cross contamination (as usual). The person told us that a separate scooper is used for the gluten free flavors and the nut free flavors (a third one is used for the traditional flavors). However, the person then told us that the SAME scooper is used for the vegan and non-vegan flavors but they can rinse it for us. Does the person not realize that washing off the ice cream scooper for us doesn’t change the fact that vegan and non vegan flavors were mixed together who knows how many times previously? Our son has allergies so that solution was a non-starter for us. But what about people who choose to be vegan? How would they feel about having their preferred flavors be routinely mixed together with animal-produced products? To compound the issue, when we suggested that the store consider making changes to accommodate people with egg and dairy allergies, we were told, “Unfortunately, there is not much room on the counter and there isn’t enough space for a fourth ice cream scooper” and that the “owner has strict policies”. Are you kidding me? In my opinion, that response is unacceptable. We understand that it is impossible to 100% avoid cross contamination in most instances (especially with ice cream), but in this situation using a separate scooper is something in the store’s control and a no brainer solution. Being the parent of a child with multiple allergies is hard enough, and I know there are millions of people in the world in the same situation. We are grateful that it is 2023 and there are so many more vegan and allergy friendly options than there were just 10 years ago. However, ice cream shops like Gelarto should strongly consider treating vegan flavors with the same level of care as flavors with more “traditional” allergens (nuts, gluten, etc.). Our son was so excited, only to discover that he could not eat any of the options (except for a pre packaged pint of lemon flavored gelato in their freezer which wasn’t practical for our day trip). Unsurprisingly he was distraught. For those of you who have vegan preferences or egg and dairy allergies, I suggest avoiding Gelarto until they change their practices. I should have taken a picture of the allergy friendly poster in their store. I found the attached picture from the internet and circled the poster in red. Their advertisement of vegan flavors is misleading at best, others may call it false advertising.

Great mix of unique and traditional flavors. Plus they have vegan, nut free, and gluten free options. Get out of the heat here