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You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For...Gelato?
By Bizbox
The New York Times reports on a newly successful class of small business: makers of gelato, that delicious, gourmet, and lower-fat alternative to ice cream honed by the Italians for years.
"Gelato seems to be catching on," the Times writes, "joining artisanal coffee, cheese and wine in catching the fancy of food lovers. With less than half the butterfat of regular ice cream, gelato is less fattening and healthier, and its dense, rich flavor and smooth texture can be highly addictive."
The piece cites small gelaterias in such bourgeois bohemian outposts as Waukesha, Wis., Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and Bethesda, Md. Unsurprisingly, perhaps the city hardest-hit by this trend is New York; in fact, a few months ago, New York magazine was able to conduct a taste test of no less than six gelaterias concentrated within several square blocks of Greenwich Village. (The winner, Grom, has no more than a dozen or so shops, with the only ones outside of Italy being in New York and Paris.)
There's a broader point to be taken away from the piece besides the fact that you really ought to find out where the best gelateria near you is and head on over before it gets cold out. What is gelato? Not ingredient-wise, but brand-wise? It is exotic and foreign--Mediterranean, even. It is gourmet. It is aspirational. It is expensive! It's almost like a micro-luxury--micro in the sense that, in absolute terms, a cone is not going to set you back very much; luxury in the sense that, compared to the price of a sugar cone at the local ice cream stand, it is positively the Louis Vuitton of frozen desserts.
In these small gelateria, then, we see savvy entrepreneurs taking advantage of two larger trends: the somewhat-paradoxical phenomenon that, in this sagging economy, it is the luxury brands that have thrived the most, and the hipness of ingredient-sensitive, healthy, artisanal food products.
The point is, of course gourmet gelato is on the rise right now. And, moreover, all of the things that make gelato attractive--its organic nature, its sense of being finely, personally crafted--play right into the hands of small businesses, who will always have a much easier time convincing consumers of their authenticity that big corporations.
Now, it's your turn: what other sort of product or service sits at the confluence of current consumer trends, and is there for the taking by enterprising entrepreneurs?
Comments (0)September 3, 2008 5:36 PM
