Cannabis entrepreneur and TV personality teaming up to open new gelato shop in Toronto
A husband-and-wife duo in Toronto is stepping outside their comfort zone by opening a new gelato shop and cafe in the city.
The summer may be winding down, but, if you ask us, there’s no wrong time for gelato, even when you have to eat it indoors to avoid freezing your fingers off.
That’s why, whether it’s the dead of winter or the dog days of summer, it’s always thrilling to learn that there’s a new gelato shop landing on the scene, and, for residents of the Junction, there’s one coming soon.
More Gelato & Caffè is the brainchild of husband and wife pair Ajay Fry and Zaira Gaudio, and while it promises to be a sweet addition to the neighbourhood indeed, it’s not this couple’s only claim to fame.
Gaudio is a co-founder of Toronto’s self-described “coziest licenced [cannabis] shop,” Curious Cannabis Co., as well as being the vice-chair of the Retail Cannabis Council of Ontario.
As for Fry, you may recognize him from his regular appearances on a slew of Canadian television shows, including etalk, CTV News and CP24, or, if you were an avid viewer of Saturday morning cartoons on YTV between 2006 and 2008, as the host of Crunch.
Needless to say, while owning and operating a gelato shop might not be directly within Gaudio and Fry’s collective wheelhouse, this pair knows a thing or two about business.
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The dream of opening their very own gelateria is one that’s been percolating between Gaudio and Fry for the better part of the past decade, Gaudio tells Dished Toronto.
“I started making ice cream for [Fry] just after we got married 10 years ago and went deep on the science,” Gaudio says, adding, “I’m a nerd.”
Once they decided, once and for all, that they would take a stab at opening their own gelato shop, the two attended the University of Guelph’s ice cream intensive, which, Gaudio tells Dished Toronto, she and Fry refer to as “ice cream university.”
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With expertise sufficiently built up, Gaudio and Fry plan to serve gelato made fresh in-house from More Gelato & Caffè, which will be taking over the space most recently occupied by the neighbourhood’s beloved bar for book lovers, Famous Last Words, on Pacific Avenue.
Gaudio tells Dished that they’re hard at work putting the finishing touches on the gelato shop and that, while a firm opening date has yet to be determined, people can expect to get a taste of More Gelato & Caffè “very, very soon.”
More Gelat0 & Caffè
Address: 392 Pacific Ave.
Opening: TBD