Aloha!

La Gelateria has been making Italian style frozen desserts in Hawaii since 1981. Our handcrafted gelato and sorbetto are made fresh daily in small batches at our factory in Honolulu. For our classic Italian flavors, we bring in the highest quality ingredients from Italy. For fruit and herb focused flavors we use local ingredients whenever possible. This allows us to highlight the quality ingredients from Hawaii's farmers and suppliers, while ensuring that our product is as fresh and flavorful as it can be.

OUR STORY

La Gelateria was created by Italian-born Maurice Grasso in 1981.  Maurice came to America as an electrical engineer in 1956 and eventually fell in love with Hawaii while vacationing here.

Determined to find a way to live in Hawaii full time, he found the answer in gelato - in his opinion, there just wasn't any good ice cream on the Islands. So, he returned to Italy, learned the fine art of crafting gelato and sorbetto and earned his Master Gelato Maker designation. In 1981, Maurice opened La Gelateria Hawaii to the delight of many restaurants, hotels and gelato lovers.

After nearly 30 years of serving up the Island's best Italian frozen desserts, Maurice decided it was time to start transitioning toward retirement.  Kenwei Chong and Erik Ludwick had been proudly serving La Gelateria's creations at their restaurant in Honolulu and, in 2007, when they discovered that Maurice was selling La Gelateria they jumped at the opportunity.

Maurice spent the next six months passing on his knowledge and techniques to the new owners and to this day he still stops by the factory to talk story, to purchase gelato and, of course to make sure the quality of the products and company he created almost 40 years ago continue to meet his exacting standards.