At the Gelato World Tour Grand Finale this weekend in Rimini, Italy, 36 gelato masters from around the globe will face off, entering flavors such as Gorgonzola-pear, apple sorbetto with caramelized speck, and smoked chocolate with bourbon. Among them will be Cocco Sogno, a coconut gelato with dark chocolate and almond brittle from Angelo Lollino of Elmwood Park and his team, Ali Caine Hung and Lollino’s son, Giuseppe. Last year the trio took first place in North America and second in the Americas at the regional semifinal competition, held in Millennium Park, with a Rocky Road variation called Chicago Pothole that included chocolate sauce, chocolate chunks, caramelized pecans, and meringue in a chocolate base.
Lollino is also behind the Vero Coffee & Gelato locations inside each Mariano’s store. “About ten years ago, Bob Mariano reached out and told me he was planning to expand back into the Chicago market,” Lollino says. “My first impression was, Wow, there’s no room for another grocer here. But I believed in him, I liked his vision. We started with two [stores], we got up to 42 locations yesterday.”
