Gelato Messina, the Australian dessert chain with a cult following back home, has opened its first North American location at 137 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side — and it isn't just serving soft serve. Called Softville, the 2,500-square-foot shop doubles as an art studio, blending Messina's gelato-making techniques with rotating exhibitions, drawing clubs, and sculptural installations from longtime collaborator Studio Jeremyville.
A Two-Decade Partnership Finally Gets Its Own Storefront
Founded in Sydney in 2002 by Nick Palumbo, Gelato Messina now operates more than 30 stores across Australia along with outposts in Hong Kong and Singapore, making Softville its first North American location, according to Forbes. The partnership behind Softville is not new: Studio Jeremyville co-founder Jeremyville and Gelato Messina have worked together informally since 2006, when he began painting custom character murals inside the chain's Sydney and Melbourne stores, Forbes reports. Over the years, Studio Jeremyville also created neighborhood-inspired murals and artwork for Messina's Australian stores and directed the design of its grocery ice cream range, according to Time Out.
Palumbo described Softville as the culmination of that long relationship, saying it takes the partnership with Studio Jeremyville to a new level, per Time Out's reporting. Studio Jeremyville, co-founded by Jeremyville and Creative Director Megan Mair, is known for its Community Service Announcements public art project, which includes more than 3,000 artworks that have been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum and the Andy Warhol Museum, according to Jimmy Lion Magazine. The studio's full partnership with Messina had reportedly been in development for more than two decades before Softville materialized, per Time Out.
Soft Serve Made With Gelato Technique and Hudson Valley Milk
Softville's soft serve is built using Messina's gelato-making techniques, and customers can assemble their own desserts from sauces, crunches, baked additions, and toppings made in-house daily, Time Out reports. The menu also includes non-dairy options. While Gelato Messina operates its own dairy farm in Numurkah, Victoria, to supply Australian stores with Jersey milk, the brand adapted its supply chain for the U.S. by sourcing non-homogenized milk from Hudson Valley's Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, according to Crumb Wire. Ronnybrook, founded in Ancramdale, New York, in 1991 by the Osofsky family, bottles its grass-fed, non-homogenized milk on-farm within 48 hours of milking and delivers it throughout the New York metropolitan area, per Ronnybrook Farm Dairy's own account.
Behind the counter, Softville's kitchen is co-directed by Executive Chef Tom Mitchell, who has served as Gelato Messina's executive chef for over a decade and co-founded its viral Australian pastry spinoff, Shadow Baking, according to Gelato Messina. Joining him is pastry chef Eva Wintersteen, formerly executive pastry chef for the Il Buco family of restaurants and bakery and previously head chef at Supermoon Bakehouse, who is developing a seasonal menu of sundaes and specials with the Messina team, per Time Out. Softville also has an open kitchen where visitors can watch the chefs work, the outlet adds.
What's on the Opening Menu
Softville opened to the public on October 1, launching with a lineup of signature chef sundaes priced at $18, according to a post on the brand's Facebook page. The headline offering is a Pavlova Sundae made with mango and yogurt soft serve, baked meringue, raspberry gel, passionfruit gel, vanilla pudding, and macerated strawberries, per Crumb Wire's description of the opening menu. Time Out reports the menu also includes a piña colada dessert built around upside-down pineapple cake, as well as dulce de leche served with hot cinnamon churros.
An Art Studio Behind a 1920s Storefront
Softville's interiors sit behind the building's original curved-glass storefront from the 1920s, a design element that Time Out reports was shaped with help from designer Sarah Carpenter working alongside Studio Jeremyville. That same storefront recently had a film cameo, having been used as the fictional Norkin Shoes exterior in Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet, according to Forbes. Inside, the space includes sculptures, art installations, and collectible ceramics, per Time Out, and the shop's Creative Club will offer regular drawing clubs and workshops led by Jeremyville and guest artists, alongside evolving cultural programming.
The shop's location places it in dense company: Softville sits on Orchard Street between Rivington and Delancey streets, on a Lower East Side block that is also home to contemporary art gallery Perrotin, natural wine restaurant Wildair, and historic appetizing shop Russ & Daughters, according to Gelato Messina. It's a fitting backdrop for a business built on the overlap between dessert and design — and for Messina, a debut that leans on two decades of creative partnership rather than a standard retail rollout.
