Owner Eric Hinkle making peanut butter brownie gelato. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
By Jessica O. Swink
Small Business Insight
Eric Hinkle is in the business of making people happy.
After a career in the cell phone industry, he saw many people come in his stores, displeased or frustrated with their phones and technology, and yearned for a way to simply bring them joy.
Combining his love of ice cream and his growing interest in gelato, he decided to open Confetti Caffe and Gelato (formerly Melt Gelato) in the Town Center of Virginia Beach.
“My wife had always planned on opening a cafe some day, and I wanted to do gelato, so we kind of just put it all together,” Eric says.
But what makes gelato so special?
Eric puts it simply: It tastes better, and it’s better for you.
“The taste is better because there isn’t a lot of fat from heavy cream that hides the flavor. We also use more intense natural flavor ingredients that are imported from Italy,” Eric says. “We also use real fruit, nuts and premium chocolates — no fake syrups.”
Never being in the food industry before, Eric and his wife, Denise, had a lot of learning to do. One of their ingredient vendors hosted training classes in North Carolina to learn the ins and outs of gelato production. Then, their equipment vendor visited them and presented a walkthrough.
“That gave us enough to get started, and we can figure a lot out on our own,” Eric says.
Each day, the couple and their staff of 10 whip up 24 different flavors of gelato. On a good day, 300 or more people come to the store, ordering flavors ranging from pink grapefruit and lemon basil to white chocolate and peanut butter.
The possibilities of gelato flavors seem endless. Eric and his staff get most of their inspiration from customers, who suggest new flavors.
“In a lot of cases, we’ll get their name and number, then call them when we make it,” he says.
Sometimes, though, experimental flavors are not worth repeating.
“We tried a matcha green tea gelato, and it was terrible. I think we only sold one serving; only one person liked it,” Eric says, laughing. “You can buy green tea ice cream, but matcha has a unique flavor, and we made it with real matcha green tea … it just wasn’t the right flavor.”
Trial and error lead to perfection, though. Tweaking recipes by adding and taking away sugars and different flavors has led to a plethora of tastes that keeps people coming back for more.
“Business is good,” Eric says. “We opened up right before all of the bad news struck with the economy, so it was a little scary.”
Denise explains another challenge.
“Both of us come from a corporate environment different from the restaurant industry, so we had some learning to do,” Denise says. “I think we’ve done pretty well, and have come a long way since the first year when we were working long hours.”
One drawback for Eric was opening in his particular location in Town Center. Plans to build a tower next door on the corner of Market and Bank have been delayed, so the amount of passersby isn’t what he initially expected.
“Town Center is great, though. Most of the activity is in front of the plaza, but more customers are finding us all the time,” Eric says.
Challenges for Confetti include continuing to market and promote the business. Plans for a new store are in the works, and the Hinkles are still in the prospecting stage to find just the right spot. Also on the horizon is wholesaling opportunities, where Confetti gelato will be available in local restaurants, hotels, caterers and other players in the gourmet industry.
If gelato can’t satisfy a customer’s big appetite, Confetti also offers crepes and Panini sandwiches, along with various coffee drinks, smoothies and Italian sodas.
“We just love providing food that is sweet and decadent,” Denise says. “And our customers can come here and eat as much as they want.”
How It Is Made
According to Eric, making gelato is similar to the process of baking a cake, or any other tasty treat.
“We take the ingredients, put them all in a bucket, add milk, blend it up and pour it into the machine,” Eric says.
Inside the machine, the ingredients heat up to 185 degrees, which helps the molecules bond together. Then, the mixture is frozen and slowly churned with paddles. This is similar to how ice cream is made, except rather than a quick, whipping process, the gelato is folded slower to decrease the amount of air in the final product.
“This makes the product more dense,” Eric explains. “There’s half the air in gelato as there is in ice cream.”
The entire process takes about 20 minutes per batch. After the gelato comes out of the machine, it is quickly put into a blast freezer set at a chilling -30 degrees for 20 minutes. This keeps the size of the ice crystals small.
Finally, the 5-quart batch is put into the walk-in freezer, set at -5 degrees until it is brought out front.
“Ice cream is usually kept at temperatures between 0 and -5 degrees, but gelato is kept between 5 and 7,” Eric states. “That difference keeps the gelato softer and creamier.”
Attention to detail is not lost when the gelato hits the display cabinets up front, ready for orders and colorful taste-testing spoons.
Confetti’s display cabinets are imported from Italy, and forced air keeps everything at just the right temperature, even though the gelato is elevated out of the pan.
The rest is history. While gelato can last up to a week in the display case, the staff at Confetti rarely sees gelato last that long. Eric says the average disappearing time of their gelato is around two to three days.
