People travel a long way for this ice cream
FIFTEEN years ago Alberto and Francesca crossed out one word and wrote another on an old building. Queues started forming.
A SEARING summer’s day on the south east coast of NSW more than a decade ago. And that craving for an ice cream. A really good one.
All those years back, I drove nearly 40 minutes from Narooma to the Bermagui Gelati Clinic. It hadn’t been open that long, but locals were endlessly talking about it. This gelati was “something”, they’d say in that understated country Australian way. (And they still say it today.)
Even then, the queue to be served was long. The wait was worth it. Exquisite cumquat gelato handed to me in a paper cup: bitter and tart and zesty and only just sweet, like fine marmalade.
The Bermagui Gelati Clinic is a story about love, artisan food, the ocean and science — all rolled into one.
First generation Australian Alberto Cementon is the geophysicist son of Italian immigrants. In 2001, he was working in the town of Montebelluna — between Venice and Dolomites. Alberto recalls “living in an apartment, which didn’t have any plates or cutlery or anything like that, so I had to go out and buy everything. Francesca was working in a designer homeware shop. She was still studying [political science]. That’s how we met.”
Francesca Michielin, Alberto’s now-wife, laughs at this memory. It turned out it wasn’t the expensive cutlery Alberto was after.
“One day he started coming, and then the day after he was there again, and the day after,” she says.
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Alberto’s Italian parents met and lived in Melbourne but always took their children to holiday in the seaside town of Bermagui. He loved the place and brought Francesca to visit the small seaside town in 2002.
“I remember Francesca, she said to me, as soon as we arrived here, ‘This place is paradise’.”
It’s hard to argue otherwise. Bermagui has a population of just over 1,500 people. Tall trees arch over the road on the way into town. A one-way bridge stretches over Lake Wallaga and the water is dotted with sea birds. This is where locals go prawning.
Originally, Alberto and Francesca set up their business in the old Bermagui Veterinary Clinic on Bunga Street in October 2003. They signed the lease and opened the business a few weeks later.
Thinking back, Alberto recalls, “There was so much to do we didn’t have time to think.”
Francesca adds: “It was busy straight away, because it was the Christmas period.”
Fifteen years later, the couple — who now have three children aged 5, 11 and 12 — are modest about their success. But in the middle of summer, holiday makers and south coast residents alike come from near and far to buy their cooling treats. There are queues out the door and the couple sell approximately 1,500 scoops of gelati in a day.
This is no accident. The Alberto and Francesca learned to make gelati using traditional methods from an Italian friend of theirs, Michele Pasa.
According to Alberto, Michele has spent his life travelling Italy and training people to make gelati.
“He gave us his recipes,” Alberto explains, “This guy is our mentor … he basically just took us under his wing.”
The secret to amazing gelati, both Francesca and Alberto agree, is quality ingredients and a fair bit of science.
“When I go to a conference and speak with other geophysicists, I say: ‘There’s a lot in common between gelati and geophysics,” Alberto tells me, “It’s all about the crystallisation. The way chemicals interact.
“Water will have the tendency to want to freeze to itself. So when you’re mixing creams to water, obviously oils and water don’t mix. The trick is to get them to mix.”
Originally the pair had a super cool name for their business picked out — but their signage didn’t arrive on time for the shop’s opening. In what has become local legend, Alberto hastily painted the word “GELATI” over the top of the word “VETERINARY” — but not very well, so the original text was still visible underneath. Thus, the business quickly became Bermagui Gelati Clinic. The name stuck like glue.
And even though the business has since moved to a stunning new location at Fisherman’s Wharf — where their busy cafe overlooks the water and patrons can witness the comings and goings of the local fishing trade — the old sign came along too.
For Francesca, the thing she loves most is the community — especially her regular customers.
“You really get to know local people and they love to share some private things with you,” she says, smiling, “They have their coffees. We know what coffee they like. We know their favourite flavours.”
I arrive early in the morning before the shop opens. The couple are cleaning windows, heating up the coffee machine and laying out gelati flavours ready for the day’s trade. At any one time there are 14 fruit gelati varieties and 14 cream-based or nut varieties to choose from. The ice creams have delectable names: salted caramel pavlova, honey ginger, cassata, ananas (pineapple) coco.
Francesca hands me a trio of gelati to sample in a waffle cone — on top is red grape gelato made from temperanillo grapes from The Rusty Fig Winery, mango is sandwiched in the middle and plum on the bottom. The latter tangy plum flavour is also made from fruit brought in by a local patron.
In fact, the couple are well-known for swapping any homegrown fruit for their gelati.
“We do trade with local people, we give them a scoop a kilo, basically,” Alberto explains, “We make the most of it. We don’t refuse anything. We cure it all and we juice them [the fruit] and we freeze them in the batches that we need. So, we have them available all year round.”
True to form, baskets and boxes of mandarins, lemons and grapefruit are currently sitting behind the counter at the Gelati Clinic.
Campari grapefruit is Alberto’s his favourite gelato — but Francesca prefers hazelnut and peach “on the fruit side.”
However, not all their flavours have been a wild success. One year they tried Vegemite as an Australia Day special and only sold a few scoops.
“It doesn’t really translate well into gelati,” Alberto confesses.
- Find the Bermagui Gelati Clinic at Fishermen’s Wharf, 73-79 Lamont St, Bermagui NSW 2546. Find them on Facebook.
- Ginger Gorman is an award-winning print and radio journalist. Follow her on Twitter @GingerGorman