Scoop This: OGGI Gelato Opens First Shop in the U.S. in Norwalk

Now THAT’S a sandwich!

Udine, Trieste, Pordenone, Rome, Barcelona, Santiago, Athens, and…Norwalk, Connecticut?

So, you usually don’t see six European cities and one South American city mentioned in the same breath as Norwalk, but when it comes to gelato and master gelato maker, Carmelo Chiaramida, this is perhaps the one time it applies.

Maurizio Ricci (left), Carmelo Chiaramida (middle), and Graziano Ricci (right) have created their own “Little Italy” with OGGI being stationed between Romanacci and Osteria Romana.

What Chiaramida is doing in Norwalk, opening his first OGGI Gelato shop in America, is simply every local ice cream lover’s good fortune.

Call it a coincidence through connection, actually. And it’s best spelled out by Maurizio Ricci, who along with his brother, Graziano, are the founders of Romanacci and Norwalk’s Osteria Romana.

Chiaramida prepares a cone. The waffle cone gets a drizzling of liquid chocolate and you can stack them as high as three scoops. The flavors here are dark chocolate, pistachio, and milk cream.

“We met Carmelo a few years ago when he ate at Osteria Romana,” Maurizio explains. “A mutual friend introduced us when Carmelo was in New York City exploring an opportunity to open OGGI there. They ended up eating at Osteria Romana. He very friendly asked about how many people come to Connecticut, business questions, and he mentioned shops in Spain, Greece, Italy, Chile. I asked how he started it, and he said he was just like us because we’re trying to open Romanacci up to that.”

Graziano chimes in, “We have similar values and a similar situation that we came here and started with not a lot of money, and we’re all passionate people.”

Gelato is of course available in to-go pints.

OGGI’s homemade pastes are for sale as well.

Carmelo casually walks in 90 minutes before OGGI Norwalk opens. Unassuming, casually dressed, too. Talk to him for a bit and you’ll feel his passion for the gelato craft all while remaining humble. In his home country, Mauricio says, “This guy’s a big deal in Italy!”

 In Norwalk, no one knows him…yet. But you should get to know a little more about his gelato origin story and what he’s doing that other gelato makers likely aren’t doing.

In 2005, Carmelo wasn’t even making ice cream. He played futbol—that’s soccer, not the NFL. The way he tells the story is he sought a summer job and a friend connected him with a new gelateria shop that was set to open in his hometown of Udine. From that point on, he was hooked.

Gelato stuffed inside brioche is common in Italy. The Riccis and Chiaramida just needed someone to make the brioche. “Pierluigi came in one day and dropped off some sourdough and we could see his passion,” Maurizio says. “He’s on another level.”

“I opened my first shop in 2007 (called Al Duomo),” he says. “I was so concerned and so afraid to start my own business. My family doesn’t have money to help me open something, so they told me to go to the bank to get a loan. I was only 20, so it was scary.”

After three years of operating his first gelateria, Carmelo was approached by Fabbri, a company that produces pastes and powders for gelato—you may be familiar with from their delicious Amarena cherries—for a job opportunity where he also got to attend Fabbri’s own gelato and pastry school.

All of OGGI’s gelato is free of artificial ingredients and free of any dyes to make it appear brighter. Everything you see, color wise, is natural.

“I ended up working there for four years, traveling a lot, lots of hotels, but I just wanted to make gelato, just not like my colleagues, I wanted to be different,” Carmelo says. “So many gelato makers use industrial products, for example, hazelnut, vanilla, and lemon pastes. It is already half prepped. Some of it is still good, it’s just not pure. I wanted to make something that is 100% mine. I wanted it to be unique, not using the same products as everyone else. How many of them make it themselves?”

For two years, Carmelo studied and worked hard at making his own book of recipes that is completely free of any industrial products, roasting his own hazelnuts, cutting fresh, local fruit, and making his own pastes. And in a full circle gelato moment, in 2014, Carmelo even bought the same shop that first hired him to make gelato back in 2005, opening the very first OGGI, the Italian word for “today.”

Carmelo, who was no stranger to gelato festivals and competitions before, wound up winning a big one that he credits with putting him on the map. But with recognition and accolades, offers will trickle in.

“A big Italian company made me an offer to open a lot of shops, but we couldn’t come to an agreement,” he says. “I felt better to not accept the offer because I didn’t want to change the mentality of how I operate. I’m looking for guys like this (as he points to Maurizio and Graziano). Normal, hardworking. We think alike, we kinda look alike.”

Maurizio interrupts, “Someone just asked me if he is my son! What?! My son?!”

“We clicked,” Carmelo says.

“He went all over and he didn’t feel the connection,” Maurizio continues. “We looked everywhere; Westport, Greenwich, Fairfield. When the landlord of this plaza had a space between our restaurants, he called us to ask if we wanted to take it before he offered it to anyone else. We called Carmelo right away. We know it’s good for our customers that want something like this, and we want to bring something excellent here. It’s not just a partnership with anyone, he’s the best of the best. People here don’t know his brand yet. In Europe they would know. In America, you get a drink after dinner. In Italy, you go for a gelato.”

What you’re getting with OGGI is a scoop shop—cones filled with truffle-like molten chocolate, then ice cold, smooth, creamy gelato scooped on top, some sorbets (they’re vegan), shakes, and gelato filled brioche, the bread courtesy of a partnership with Pierluigi Mazzela of Fatto a Mano.

But what is all comes down to for OGGI and ultimately for Carmelo is simple. It’s about high quality.

“I search everywhere I open for the freshest local ingredients; milk, cream, and fruit,” he says. “That’s step number one. The second step is to continue producing gelato with my homemade pastes, my recipes. Santiago, Barcelona, Norwalk, Italia, we work with the same system, the same recipe, but here you take the pistachio gelato and bring it to Santiago, and it’s a little different because I use the milk from Santiago. Their milk is different from Connecticut milk (here they use milk local to Easton). Each location has its own touch. For me, this is beautiful.”

250 Westport Avenue, Norwalk
Instagram @oggigelato + @oggigelatous
203.286.7237, oggigelato.it