Heaven in a cone

Other

24 Jul, 2016 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Jane Phare finds out why customers queue down Queen St to savour a Giapo ice cream creation.

Italian chef Giapo Grazioli is asked nearly every day if he's interested in franchising his ice cream business. He's not. Nor is he planning to open a second Giapo store.

Instead he and his wife Annarosa Petrucci pour their energy and creativity into the little ice-cream parlour they opened eight years ago in Queen St next to the Civic. It is here that Giapo fans, tourists and theatre goers queue for blind tastings and, eventually, an ice cream creation that looks simply...well... too good to eat.

"We are insisting on trying to make it great, instead of big," Grazioli says. "We dream to make New Zealand ice cream famous."

Grazioli describes Giapo as "an evolution" rather than a busuiness. It's a very different store to the traditional parlour that opened in 2008, serving organic ice cream, gelato and sorbet. Since then Grazioli and Petrucci have covered up the ice cream counter so that customers rely only on taste for their choice. And the couple have let their imaginations run riot.

Take the current menu for instance. It features freshly made, warm Yorkshire puddings filled with combinations like hokey pokey ice cream, and siamu popo - coconut and caramel jam from Samoa - with more toppings and ice cream on top. Or The Kiss, inspired by glamorous Italian actress Sophia Loren, dark chocolate and Christchurch hazelnut ice cream coated with dark and milk chocolate and caramelised hazelnuts. The chocolate-coated cone is finished with a set of big, red chocolate lips.

For those who like something on the tart side, there's a to-die-for sorbet called Aotearoa Garden - mandarin, Manuka oil and passionfruit.

If decadence is your thing, Giapo Buomo is lightly salted caramel ice cream topped with soft, toasted Italian meringue, hazelnut praline, crushed amaretti biscuits and bronzed hazelnuts.

And for customers who simply can't decide there's the $27.50 "degustation" Kiwi-inspired tasting platter of siamu popo, afghan cookies, Christchurch hazelnut, hokey pokey and Aotearoa Garden.

Giapo is not a quick stop if you're a first timer. For a start there's the blind tastings and then there's the array of ice cream cones lined up like pieces of artwork. Do you choose the dark chocolate-coated waffle cone dotted with caramalised cocoa nibs and freeze-dried plum, or the one coated in freeze-dried raspberry powder, pecan and white chocolate?

The cones, like the toppings, biscuits, praline and hokey pokey, are all made on- site.

Giapo is very much a family affair. Grazioli says his wife and business partner is "the boss". And, he says, he gets inspiration from the drawings of their two children, Francesca, 6, and Pasquale, 4.

"Instead of drawing animals, or stars or flowers...they draw ice cream," Grazioli laughs.

Born in Torre del Greco, near Naples, Grazioli came to New Zealand 11 years ago and never left.

"I remember calling my mother and telling her 'I'm not coming back'. My mum couldn't even figure out where I was on the map."

Little wonder. New Zealand wasn't on the map. During a trip to Italy five years ago Grazioli visited his old high school to find a map he remembered from his youth. Just as he thought, his adopted country was missing.

"I found the same map and it did not have New Zealand on it," he laughs. "I complained to the principal. I told him 'there is a country at the bottom of Australia.' I told him 'you'd better change it!'"

Giapo, 279 Queen St, next to the Civic Theatre.

Open Sunday - Thursday, 12noon-10.30pm; Friday-Saturday, 12 noon - 11.45pm.

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