Cremalosa, a forthcoming Decatur shop from gelato master and acclaimed Atlanta food writer Meridith Ford, will pop up on the rooftop at Hotel Clermont from 6-10 p.m. on Friday, October, 4. The pop-up, part of Hotel Clermont’s ongoing series of Friday evening rooftop food cart takeovers, will feature Ford’s gelato, adult affogato, and boozy shakes, with flavors including banana pudding, dementor’s demise (dark chocolate grand marnier), hazelnut crunch, and gingersnap cookie. Prices will be $4 to $10.
This will be the first opportunity for Atlantans to try Cremalosa. Opening this fall at 2657 E. College, the menu at the gelato shop will highlight flavors from local ingredients spun according to time-honored Italian techniques, including a seasonally driven selection of made-from-scratch gelato and other sweet treats. In addition, Cremalosa’s Decatur shop will serve as a hub for the business’ wholesale operations, and the gelato will be available to restaurants, grocers and more around Georgia.
Cremalosa will showcase around a dozen flavors of gelato, all spun in-house on a Cattabriga gelato machine imported from Italy. Crafted from local cream and simple, farm-fresh ingredients, flavors will change with the seasons and include a mix of traditional Italian options, such as stracciatella and pistachio, and creative offerings uniquely inspired by Southern desserts and iconic American cakes, cookies and penny candy––think banana pudding, malted milk ball, gingersnap cookie, hummingbird cake, snicker bar, strawberries & cream, lemon meringue pie and peach cobbler.
In addition to scooped gelato, layer cakes and popsicles, Cremalosa will also serve boozy shakes (like “The Elvis,” with banana pudding gelato, peanut butter, bourbon whiskey, vanilla wafers, whipped cream and bacon), adult affogatos, canned beer and wine by the glass or bottle. Everything from the brownies in the dark chocolate fudge brownie to the caramel in the sea salt caramel gelato will be made from scratch. Add-ins, from local berries and fruits, will be preserved at the shop to create delicate and balanced fruit options. Meridith will import special nut pastes from two regions in Italy: pistachios from Bronte, Sicily, and hazelnuts from the renowned nut-growing Piedmont region.
Cremalosa is from owner and Atlanta native Meridith Ford, who started out as a pastry chef and earned her pastry degree from Johnson & Wales University, where she taught for seven years. She served as The Providence Journal’s dining critic and head food writer for over five years, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s dining critic and food writer from 2004 to 2010, where she earned a James Beard Award nomination for food criticism. Most recently, she worked in pastry for owner Riccardo Ullio of Sotto Sotto, Fritti, Escorpion and Novo Cucina, where she developed the latter’s gelato program and studied with Italian masters who taught her Italian techniques. The name “Cremalosa” is a play on “Crema,” the Italian word for cream, and the heart from the shop’s logo was Meridith’s daughter’s favorite doodle to sketch as a child.
