La Gelatessa, Glasgow

Why does black pine indicate a good flat white? It has to be a matte black, with hand-painted white text on the top, the fewer words the better. I love this kind of coffee shop – you can picture it in your head, and you may even be inside it right now. Maybe we shouldn’t base our food choices around visual cues and nebulous thoughts about the vibe, but we do. And while the usual answer as to why we do anything (the word ‘capitalism’, whispered in an appropriately ominous voice) does apply here, there’s something else going on.

An aesthetic isn’t just about the shape of the glasses or the background music. It’s about ideas and concepts, realising what story it is you’re trying to tell – in short, understanding the assignment. If the place is utilitarian but chaotic, they’re focusing too much on the cooking, so the food is probably great. Aesthetics are also great at revealing when people don’t know what they’re doing (cf. high street cafe chains smashing the ‘change fonts’ button every six months while doing literally nothing else).   

La Gelatessa has all the aesthetic hallmarks of a new wave ice cream shop – the pastel pink exterior, the marbled counter, the chunky signwriting and sketched logo of a woman with a sweeping haircut. The place is a delight to look at, like it fell out of a 1950s tree and hit every branch on the way down, with Agnès Varda or Federico Fellini filming the whole thing. When we arrive, we spark just the latest in a series of queues out the door, tripping over small children on the way back onto Nithsdale Road. We’re in the shop for about 45 seconds, but the vibes are delightful.

Vibes schmibes though, it’s been 300 words – is the ice cream good? Yes, the ice cream is very, very good. First up is a fantastically creamy fior di latte, which cuts through all that patter about signwriting and takes you back to being a dribbly kid at the beach. It’s sweet, refreshing, smooth and proof that these folk know what they’re doing.

The amarena cherry and ricotta is brilliant, with sweet and bitter notes knocking back and forth, while a dark chocolate and coconut scoop isn’t the darkest but the coconut part of the team more than makes up for it. There are flecks of the stuff throughout, and that rounded, nutty flavour you only really get when you absolutely go hog-wild with the coconut. The orange and hibiscus sorbet is a beautiful shade of pink, and impressively balanced. It’s zingy without being acidic, sweet but not sickly, and it stands out completely against all of its milk-based siblings so we have to save it for last. We’re walking through Queen's Park trying not to get dairy on our shoes, feeling nostalgic for various different bits of the past; it’s a lovely time.

In his excellent mini-history of Scottish ice cream for Great British Chefs, Craig Angus writes that, in 1903, there were 89 ice cream shops in Glasgow. By 1905, there were more than 330. Towards the end of the same article, he writes: “Everyone has a place that’s special to them, and think theirs is the best.” Why is your favourite place special? Is it the red leather seats, the old boy through the back, the history of the place? Is it the view out to sea once you turn off the main street, or the times you’ve spent with friends in the queue, feeling like an over-excited kid again? Is it the vibe, or is it literally just the ice cream? Whatever your criteria, if you don’t have a favourite ice cream place yet, La Gelatessa is well worth a place on the shortlist.

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38 Nithsdale Rd, Glasgow, G41 2AN
Thu-Sun, 11am-7pm
@lagelatessa on Instagram