In Newcastle Upon Tyne during the early 1960’s, Elena Ciccarelli worked for a reputable ice cream supplier, owned by local Italian family, the Rea’s. Not only did Elena make ice cream in their factory but would also work in the family’s café too. During this time, she met Donato Gregorio, who worked on a travelling shop supplying Italian families throughout the region with essential items like olive oil and pasta!
1966 proved to be a rather significant year for our family as Elena gave birth to her and Donato’s first children, twin boys; Antonio and Michele. Initially, Donato continued to work during the week for the local building contractor and went out in his ice cream van on weekends. He soon realised that Elena was right all along, and his destiny lay in ice cream, so he left his building job to become a full-time ice cream man.
By the mid 1990’s we had a fleet of ice cream vans covering Newcastle, Tyneside and Northumberland including parks and coastal locations. It was also around this time that we began to make our own ice cream at our Newcastle-based factory which helped to distinguish ourselves from other operators in the area.
2001 saw the opening of our first ice cream parlour, the Serena Café at South Beach, Blyth, adjoined to our very own Fish and Chip restaurant, Coastline. During one of our recent renovations we decided to rename the parlour after our mother’s maiden name; Ciccarelli. This coincided with a rebranding of our Ice Cream Van fleet to include the Ciccarelli name.
In 2020 we decided to make it even easier for our customers to buy our award-winning Gelato by launching a brand-new website, incorporating an online shop. We are now one of the few Ice Cream operators in the UK which covers everything from event catering to wholesale supply in addition to having parlours and an online shop.