The factory visit is the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, now you can get a little Willy Wonka action of your own in Sydney with the opening of the new Gelato Messina HQ in Marrickville.

“There’s a glassed area that runs into the middle of the production facility so you can see all the working parts,” Gelato Messina founder Nick Palumbo says. “You can see the gelato and chocolate being made.”

Palumbo, who was enroute to see GM’s new store in Hong Kong for the first time when Good Food caught up with him, says the new facility is four times the size of Messina’s old Rosebery digs.

“It used to be 20 tenancies before we moved in,” he says. “We’re spread over three buildings.”

“Everything we do is available in that store: a cake that might be only available at certain Messina outlets is there, the whole range of Bavarians.”

The new HQ also features its own chocolate shop, and you can grab some fresh milk from the Messina farm.

But Messina hasn’t abandoned Rosebery. A pop-up is up and running at The Cannery, with plans for a permanent store in the postcode.

Open daily noon-11pm, 1 Rich Street, Marrickville, gelatomessina.com