Gelato di Prata, located in the Haile Market Square shopping plaza near the intersection of SW 91st St. and SW 24th Ave., offers Italy’s most famous frozen desserts, including both gelato and Italian ice, as well as premium ice cream, quiches, salads and coffee.

Gelato di Prata is owned and operated by a Gainesville couple, Richard and Hilda Brown. Gelato is the Italian word for “frozen” and is synonymous with the country’s famous frozen dessert, which is similar to American ice cream.  Prata is the Italian word for “meadow,” which is the Brown’s first grandchild’s name (the Browns have another grandson named Devin and the couple has another grandchild on the way).  Meadow Brown lives nearby and comes to visit the shop often.  Her favorite gelato flavors are cookies and cream and stratiatella.

Richard Brown, who was an engineer for a defense contractor in the Melbourne area, wanted to move closer to his sons and Hilda, who were living in Gainesville. He had a friend who had purchased a gelato and ice cream manufacturing facility in Orlando and decided to open the Haile Plantation store. “We live right up the street,” Richard explains.

Hilda has a full time job as a scientific research manager in the neuroscience department of the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida. Her work as a molecular biologist focuses on Alzheimer’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease and Huntington’s disease.

Compared to American ice cream, gelato is made with more milk than cream.  This gives gelato less butter-fat than ice cream. The blending and freezing process also is different and gives gelato a creamier texture than American ice cream. But, the biggest difference is the flavor. It is much more intense than the ice cream you buy at the grocery store. When you have a taste of Gelato di Prata’s double chocolate, you will know for sure that is chocolate.

Gelato di Prata serves 24 flavors of gelato, which vary each week. Recently, the store featured egg nog flavor for the holidays. While the best sellers are cookies and cream, double chocolate and mint chocolate chip, the bacio (or chocolate hazelnut) is divine.

Gelato di Prata also serves ten flavors of Italian ice, including lemon, mango and watermelon. The store also features premium ice cream (the most popular flavors are bubble gum, cotton candy and chocolate chip cookie dough) and sorbet, sherbet, yogurt, and sugar free ice cream.

All of the frozen treats are made fresh in Orlando on Mondays and they are dished up at Gelato di Prata as soon as Wednesday.

Gelato di Prata also features bakery fresh quiches from The Flour Pot (located in the Tioga Town Center) and salads. 

Aside from great food, the store features a beautiful 1,300 square-foot mural of three places in Italy, including the hills of Tuscany, Portofino and Venice. “We didn’t want to paint the walls or wallpaper,” says Richard. “I’ve always liked the hillsides of Tuscany. We actually had a coffee table book with a lot of photos of Italy and we narrowed it down to the ones we liked. We gave it to the artist and this is what he came up with.”

Gelato di Prata offers discounts on dessert with a lunch purchase.

For more information about Gelato di Prata, visit the store at 2835 SW 91st St., Suite 330 in the Publix-anchored Haile Market shopping plaza. Call 317-3730.