Long Island City is getting a taste of “la dolce vita.”
L’Arte del Gelato, which has three locations in Manhattan, has stationed a cart outside The Food Box located in the Falchi Building at 31-00 47th Ave.
The cart will be serving 12 flavors of gelato on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will be offering a buy one, get one free gelato deal every Friday. Nine of the popular flavors will stay the same and three flavors change every Monday.
“I think this is an upcoming area,” said Francesco Realmuto, owner of L’Arte del Gelato, about deciding to open up a spot in Long Island City, the first in Queens. “I think the building is great. There are a lot of people in the area, there is a lot of new construction. I think the next couple of years we’ll see a stronger community.”
L’Arte del Gelato products are made from recipes brought from Sicily, where Realmuto is from, and feature all-natural ingredients found in either local markets or imported from Italy.
“We’re a really authentic product,” said Realmuto, a Ridgewood resident. “We’re a great product.”
The gelato cart will be in front of the Falchi Building as long as weather is permitting, according to Realmuto, and will come back in the spring.
In the next couple of weeks, Realmuto also said he plans on opening a gelato factory inside the Falchi Building. The factory will make gelato to sell to supermarkets such as Dean & DeLuca.
The Food Box is a 2,000-square-foot pop-up artisanal food fair located on the ground floor of the five-story, 657,660-square-foot, multi-tenant and mixed-use building.
Vendors within The Food Box include Karu Café, ReCaFo, Made from Scratch and Mrs. Soupy & Friends.
Last year, Jamestown announced the multi-million dollar repositioning and capital improvement program at the Falchi Building, built in 1920 as a warehouse and distribution facility. This program includes façade and lobby renovations, furniture upgrades, art installations and the introduction of food purveyors, such as L’Arte del Gelato and Artisanal Cheese.
Other Falchi Building tenants include jewelry manufacturers, government and medical offices, and media, technology and engineering companies.
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