It usually takes me about 1.5-2 weeks to get into the gelato making mode. This is because I change my whole frame of mind during the “offseason”. I do a lot of changing of diet, meal times, sleeping times, and quiet time. During offseason I read a book, garden or clean something, practice meditation, go to hockey games, read another book, ride my bike, play some video games, play “football practice” with the dog, check up on my parents in Passaic, and play pranks on Jenny. 

I’ve had to start the engine to only shut it off several times. We were ripe and ready to open at the end of March. I began the week before mentally and physically preparing. A breakfast of snickers and an apple switched to flax toast with almond butter, yogurt, and a handful of raspberries. And instead of sleeping at 3am, after many rounds of Modern Warfare, and waking up at 9am I was adapting to being up by 6am. I was getting to dog back into regiment. Those 1-2 weeks are preseason. Well, that all went crashing down.

So now its May and we hope to be open by the end of the month. How we will reopen I’ll post about soon either here or on social media. It will be minimal, only takeout, and only for a couple of days a week then expand from there. We will focus on the standards, APEM standards of course not like any other whoever place, with a few specials week to week. Although feel free to throw out some suggestions for flavor and if I fancy any I may give it a go. 

There’s a lot of shit going on that’s more important than just our very very young store. I worry about the future for our towns, and have sympathy for those who have suffered and lost loved ones. 

Thinking of you all, stay safe, and if you see me riding a bike around holler.

Alex 

Winter Break. 

I hope everyone’s hibernation has been going well. Jenny and I are just about to head to Spain for a bit. We were in Italy and Austria a few weeks back and had a great time. Our winter break is a little bit of travel, relaxation, maintenance, and reading. 

The island of Sardinia was a real treat. We drove from coast to coast and from the marshes to the hills. Some of the beaches, at this time of the year, are so empty that I’d imagine myself as being back at a time before even the Carthaginians. The food need not be mentioned except that it was refreshing beyond an American mind. The people are very personable, the small towns full of life, and the kids spent drastically less time on phones. 

Truth be told, I get somewhat melancholy when visiting parts of Europe and Asia. I see how the trains run on time, social alienation is less severe, and there’s a greater respect for beautiful things whether natural or man made. Like, you can tell it personally touches them or it’s theirs. Americans haven’t really been here that long and many but not all see everything through a consumerist lens. And our lives are constantly sucked into lens, because for most of our history that’s all we’ve ever done. As a group, we are lost on the land we inhabit. We just don’t speak about our country as a belonging and rather a possession. Of course, when I travel I meet plenty of morons and assholes. I’m not saying other places are perfect, but our roots haven’t dug in yet. I’m more jealous of their mindset than anything. Sometimes I think of when I was in California, and maybe I was the outsider. But my time there was transformative and if anything I cared more about the land there than here in New Jersey. I grew up in Passaic, and it was shit. We tossed our trash everywhere because we just assumed we were shit, so who cares. At some point I thought “why am I trashing my own town,” but the sentiment of I don’t give a shit was always there. Maybe in towns like Bloomfield and Montclair it’s different, but I can remember a time when Montclair wasn’t so hot either. 

Reading is important to overcome the melancholy. And I strongly encourage everyone to continue to read. It helped me a lot growing up along with music. Reading can transport you to different opinions, ideas, and even worlds. There’s a lot of pressure on us to perform and act a certain way, and reading and eventually writing helps us to explore. I like to think I’m a cheerful pessimist, and I think humans are mostly neurotic and scared sacs of biological matter except that we are gifted that weird thing we call consciousness. We may never be able to do anything good for the natural world, and at minimum we may be the only living things with the ability to admire and get drunk off the ecstasy of the natural world. Our imagination is boundless, but always richer when planted in the world. Today instead we look to barren dead planets as a place to live where we would be stuck in cages because the air is poisonous. When was the last time you sat listening to the wind and trees? 

So we are off to Spain and specifically Andalusia. I’ve always wanted to see the Moorish architecture and to see the Mediterranean from that part of the world. We plan to see a few palaces and cathedrals, but aside from that just to soak in the place and maybe meet cool people. Maybe stare at a Picasso for a bit. When we get back in March, we will start getting the store ready to reopen. After a few paint touch ups, cleaning, and an additional AC unit we should be ready to rock. I’m thinking of doing stuff with citrus at the tail end of the season and tropical fruits. 

Lastly, this was a weak winter with little snow and mostly just cold. 

Stay warm,

Alex 

Vienna, Austria

Mamoiada, Sardinia

Sardinia, Mediterranean.

Black on black on black

Cagliari, Sardinia

Welcome to the new decade. Jenny and I have been quiet lately due to the holidays and really just catching up on sleep and playing video games. 

I’ll assume everyone had a great holiday and hopefully no one was sick. I’ve been to the store a few times while closed just to do random things and honestly I have an inch to make gelato. But I’m also excited to travel and maybe I’ll find some cool ingredients. 

I have nothing inspirational to say about 2020 or the new decade. Same shit another number. No matter the date I just hope when our store is open people are enjoying themselves.  

See you soon and stay warm. 

Alex 

I’m a Jersey boy and that means life is about warm fluffy cornbread. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. You feel me?

This is a flavor I’ve been trying to get to, but with some things customers have been asking for or ingredients just ready to go it wasn’t possible. I love many types of food from all over the world, but I sure do love classic Jersey things from summer tomatoes picked at dusk, peaches, blueberries, to cranberries and mmmhmm, cornbread. So dip by this week to try a few variations with butter, maple syrup, peppers, and blueberries. Embrace the Jersey.

Alex 07055.

“My rhymes is like droppin your head on cement”

Here we go.

Maybe you’ve walked into the store once or many times. Everything is pretty minimal no? There are a lot of reasons for that and one is I’m a Jersey guy and less is more. I like volume and slanging it out no bullshit. 

My role models are places like Rutt’s Hut, White Manna or even any good slice place. You walk in, order your thing and you’re free to hang and eat your stuff. Boom boom bam. Today is nuts. I want something that’s well made by someone who knows what they are doing and focuses on classics either repeated or touched up for today.  

Maybe I’m just old school and grew up in the 90s when the world was totally different. America stood atop a mountain looking down and a simple dessert like soufflé’ or apple pie was soul satisfying. Today people don’t even know who they are. I do. I’m a Passaic motherfucker who loves making gelato.   

“Life is a blast when you know what you're doin' Best to know what you're doin' 'fore your life get ruined

Life is a thrill when your skill is developed

If you ain't got a skill or trade, then shut the hell up” - At the Helm by Hieroglyphics

Why? Because they can’t teach you the most important parts: suffering and heart. Of course there are technical aspects of making the stuff that you can learn at a school, but there are cheaper and more life fulfilling ways to learn. I went to a culinary school which I regret mostly, and I luckily never went to some bullshit ice cream or gelato school.

Making gelato and ice cream, or even things like sushi and pizza, are not things to be learned in a classroom by some egghead. It is something to be transferred whether passed down through family or something like an apprenticeship where you start off as a sucker. This is because suffering and heart are the most important things. It either has to come deep from within or you are broken and rebuilt several times over. Then you go off and become your own man assuming you also possess higher standards and an imagination. If not, then no matter what you are screwed.

This could be said of the food industry as a whole but I’m reluctant to say so since currently there’s a big shift into making everything as packaged and sterile as possible. Everything is a pursuit for prettier social media pics. The economy is currently based on thin air. It’s insane. Plenty of shit thrives today. It’s sad.

Luckily, this is still a nasty business and I hope it remains so for a while. That’s also a plus since many people these days are so outraged and weakened over the smallest things that they’ll quit sooner than later and get out of the way. I believe in kindness in the streets and in the home, but in my kitchen it’s war and hell. The only salvation is seeing your smiles.

“It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.” - Cicero 

It’s my favorite time of the year. Yeah, business gets slower but it’s damn good gelato making season. Feel it with me. Think of the crisp morning air, the falling leaves, the birds singing, and the rustling of the squirrels sorting around for prime acorns. It’s life at its fullest before the deep sleep and rebirth. And the food gets heavy. Put me in front of a bowl of venison goulash and Tarte Tatin and I’m a happy man. 

Apples, pears, and pumpkins are heavy on my mind. But there’s also cranberries, persimmons, and pomegranates. I hope to make one of my favorite flavors soon: rice pudding ice cream with caramelized apples. There’s a bias clearly, but I’ve never had such a decadent, simple, and hit-your-gut flavor such as that. Sometimes I think I opened this business not because I wanted to make money, but because I was sick and tired of all the shitty ice cream, gelato, and sorbet out there. I love it all too much to leave it in the hands of a bunch of wankers.

I’m mostly a classical type despite occasionally making flavors such as Avocado Coconut or Breakfast At A Jersey Diner. Our Milky Darkness using chocolate made in Switzerland is a prime example. It tastes like where home is and no milkshake with pretzels or donkey balls hanging off the side will ever trump a properly made chocolate. Isn’t life supposed to be simple and bittersweet not awash in cheap accessories? I wish more people could see Gelato through my eyes. 

Autumn manifests all these feelings and experiences. We hope to see you at the store during these cool nights before we close for what is likely going to be a very cold Jersey winter. 

Years ago when we had our gelato business, Cremeux Ex Machina, the life imitates art or the postmodern grab at false authenticity in a society that no longer produces anything was what was in. When I reflect back at those times when I arrived in California I was still very much the east coast kid who only thought of the world in terms of Michelin stars. Alain Ducasse on one end and Alice Waters on the other. So I was very focused on the ingredients since that’s what really pulled me over there. I didn’t care about San Francisco or even the nice weather in Los Angeles. I just wanted good fruit, and instead much of the stuff was kale (it’s disgusting), cereal shit, or too much Johnny do good save the world type crap. 

Mostly what I experienced there was emptiness. You know a culture is a zombie when they turn supplements for your tap water into a million dollar business. Anyway, my point is that years ago I would have never made this flavor Breakfast At A Jersey Diner. With all my gelato business experiences in California and my own personal changes I’ve moved back to Jersey and I’m just about a good laugh. Tricksters and Jokers are my muse. I thought it would be funny to make a rye flavor for Rosh Hosannah and it ended up being rye, cinnamon, nutmeg, caraway, and maple syrup. It tasted like a fucking thing I’d eat at Tick Tock. I used to be a serious guy but now I’m just about making whatever is good by any means necessary within my own world view.