Matthew Olerio got his start as an entrepreneur with a truck full of fresh produce that his father sent him and his brother to sell on the streets of Providence when he was about 16. The father wanted his boys to learn how to work for themselves.
When they returned at dusk, having sold only half the produce, Olerio’s father yelled, “Don’t ever come home with a full truck again!” He took the boys back up to Federal Hill and sold every remaining piece of fruit.
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The experience made such an impact that Olerio, decades later, had the quote printed on a poster that hangs behind his desk at Roba!Dolce, a gelato company he helped start in Providence a year and a half ago, and which has more than doubled its sales since then.
The idea behind Roba!Dolce was to bring the flavorful, milk-based ice cream from the gelaterias of Italy to Rhode Island. Olerio, the company’s president, said his friend Richard Fox, the founder, had seen an opportunity to fill a gap in the New England market.
Fox asked him to help set up and operate the company, Olerio said, and he’s been “knee-deep” in gelato ever since.
Roba!Dolce started with three or four employees making gelato and hand-filling about 100 pint containers per day, along with tubs for the company’s two cafés, one in Newport and one on Thayer Street in Providence, said Matthew Hewett, vice president and chief operating officer.
Today, he said, Roba!Dolce employs about 30 to 40 people who make enough gelato and sorbetto – Italian sorbet, made from fruit, water and sugar – to fill 2,000 pints per day in a 1,800-square-foot facility filled with equipment from Italy.
“We make one batch every five minutes,” said Hewett, who studied culinary arts and food service management at Johnson & Wales University. “We make small batches instead of big runs … by doing that, we keep the flavors in check.”
Each batch makes five gallons’ worth, Hewett explained. The ingredients are poured into a machine that slowly churns the mixture, making it smooth and creamy as it freezes.
Because gelato is made from whole milk instead of cream, it contains half the fat of regular ice cream, Hewett said. The intense flavor comes from having less air volume than ice cream.
The company produces 50 gelato flavors, 20 of which are sold in pints, for about $4, at the two cafés and regional grocery stores and restaurants. Pink grapefruit sorbetto is Roba!Dolce’s signature flavor.
Olerio attributes much of the company’s success to developing innovative flavors and products – such as gelato-filled cannoli on a stick, which he calls the “secret weapon.”
“We feel we are the most innovative gelato company in the U.S.,” he said.
The partners’ goal is to make Roba!Dolce, which means “sweet stuff” in Italian, as common as Ben & Jerry’s, starting with New England. In efforts to develop the brand, Olerio said, he’s been introducing the product to more small to mid-sized grocery stores and markets in addition to wholesale distributors to restaurants and universities, such as Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard University.
Trattoria Del Corso, an Italian restaurant in East Greenwich, uses Roba!Dolce gelatos and sorbettos in desserts, said Mark Scott, co-owner of the restaurant. Some of the sorbettos are also incorporated into mixed drinks.
“We really like it,” Scott said. “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback. … People ask where we get it, where they can buy it.”
Managing the company’s growth poses the greatest challenge, Olerio said. Currently two gelato machines make all the products, he said, but if things continue to go well, the company would need to buy more equipment, expand the production facility, and maybe add automation.
But first, Olerio said, they have to keep promoting Roba!Dolce.
“We are developing a brand,” he said. “We’re trying to hit a ‘brand’ slam.”
