A new outpost of Carlton’s Pidapipó Gelateria opens on Friday down the Windsor end of Chapel Street, bringing with it new flavours and a range of cakes, and the option of filling your cone with warm Nutella before gelato is scooped on top.
Owner Lisa Valmorbida’s taste for gelato is mostly traditional. She steers towards produce-led flavours and clear of trend-driven flavours jammed with add-ons. With the addition of a new lab and bakery out the back of the new location, however, there’s a lot more experimentation planned on take-home cakes and gelato pies to accompany the line-up of 20 handcrafted gelati.
“We’ve got a carrot cake and mascarpone flavour, gelato with sticky date pudding swirled into it and a ricotta and almond biscotti kind,” says Valmorbida. New flavours developed especially for the launch include a silky dairy-free avocado and lime sorbetto, a salted-caramel gelato with white chocolate and peanut butter ganache, and a particularly interesting saffron risotto gelato. “That one is sort of like a rice pudding,” says Valmorbida.
The new line of cakes will include the likes of bombe Alaska, a pumpkin-pie gelato cake with a pecan and caramel brittle, and a banoffee pie. There’ll also be seasonal granitas, four in summer and two in winter, such as Sicilian granita con panna: espresso granita topped generously with whipped cream.
Interior designer Rabindra Naidoo has completed the design for the new store, in line with the original brief for the first: timeless, with pops of colour, steel terrazzo and touches of brass. “We have so many customers on the south side of the river, so it was time to create something for them,” says Valmorbida. If Windsor still isn’t close enough, there’s always the take-home option for a couch-side indulgence.
Pidapipó Windsor opens on Friday 8 April at 85 Chapel St, Windsor, Vic, pidapipo.com.au.