Top SF Gelato Maker Opens Second Location In San Ramon

SAN RAMON, CA — The very Italian San Francisco gelato shop Gio Gelati will begin scooping its delicious flavors in the Tri-Valley beginning this Labor Day weekend when the company officially opens its second location in San Ramon's City Center Bishop Ranch.

The team that brought Gio Gelati to the Bay area is manager Guido Mastropaolo, from Pesaro/Genova, Italy, and gelato chef Patrizia Pasqualetti, from Orvieto, Italy. Pasqualetti is a well-known gelato chef in Italy for Gelateria Pasqualetti, a family-run gelato enterprise dating back 40 years. She and Mastrapaolo moved to San Francisco in 2018 and brought with them a coveted third-generation gelato recipe.

Gio Gelati's delicacies are made with fresh, locally sourced ingredients, but when something can't be found it is imported from Italy, according to Mastrapaolo and Pasqualetti.

"We marry tried and true Italian methods and recipes molded by four decades of gelato-making wisdom to the best the California season puts in our culinary basket. Batch by batch, we transform carefully purveyed ingredients into unique combinations of sensorially captivating flavors and textures. In the hands of our gelato chefs, milk, fruit, nuts and eggs from local producers are mixed and churned into an experience that is the best of both worlds, Italy and California," the pair proclaim on their company website.

Classic Gio Gelati flavors include, among others: Capriccio with hazelnuts, chocolate cream and wafers; Stracciatella with milk, cream, sugar, and chocolate chips; and milk & figs made with milk, sugar, cream, Madagascar vanilla extract and figs caramelized in muscovado sugar.

Mastrapaolo and Pasqualetti said they chose City Center Bishop Ranch for their second location after a careful search.

“We’re proud to join the City Center adventure while adding our own flavor to a location that already radiates true Italian flare,” Mastrapaolo said, referring to Renzo Piano, the Italian architect whose firm designed City Center. “We wanted to bring color to an often gray world and allow East Bay residents to enjoy life in a simpler way, through our homemade gelato.”