Gelato Carlo — Inside the Austrian sensation
It’s hard to know where to start with Gelato Carlo and its owner Carlo Maghakian. This is the Viennese gelateria that has achieved nationwide fame for serving ‘Austria’s best ice-cream’ and has been written about by countless media outlets across the country. At the heart of it is a man passionate about one thing — bringing joy to his customers with the highest quality, most authentic, gelato possible.
Carlo’s journey to this point has been far from conventional or straightforward. Born in Syria to an Austrian mother and an Armenian father, he moved to Austria full-time in the 1980s. After that, a successful career in product design followed as Carlo setup his own marketing agency that worked with huge clients from around the world, splitting his time between Europe and Hong Kong.
As was the case for so many people and businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. In 2020, when the biggest contracts vanished and future business looked bleak, Carlo’s solution was to finally devote himself to a lifelong passion: gelato. Months studying in Italy and intense research into ingredients and processes followed before finally, with the help of an architect friend from London, the time came to design and build his shop in Stephansplatz, Vienna.
Inside and out, it’s certainly not hard to spot the influences of a career in product design and marketing. Everything is spotless and clean in every sense of the word — floor to ceiling windows reveal an open kitchen and a tasteful orange and blue colour scheme completes the aesthetic. Carlo is clear, “I’ve got nothing to hide, so why not put it all on show?”.
“I’ve got nothing to hide, so why not put it all on show?”
And it’s only when you go inside the kitchen and behind the scenes that you realise just how intense the attention to detail is from the whole team here. The Cattabriga machines “aren’t necessary if you use normal ingredients”, says Carlo — suffice to say that he doesn’t. In fact, the owner insists that he absolutely refuses to skimp on any ingredients at all: “if there’s a higher quality option, I’ll buy it” he says. That means pistachios from Bronte, raspberry’s from Serbia, figs from Vienna, lemons from Syracusa, Valhrona chocolate, and well, you get the idea…
Of course, it’s all well and good sourcing the best ingredients but they would be useless if they weren’t harnessed properly. The production process itself is one thing but it doesn’t stop there: freezers across the site are at different temperatures to make sure that the end product is perfect. Everything is first shock frozen in the kitchen at -39 degrees before being moved to -20 in the store room where it can stay for up to two months. Before it is used it then returns back to the shock freezer before being brought down to -13 for serving. The result? Carlo says that you end up with gelato that almost “warms your mouth”, and in the strangest possible way, he’s right.
“If there’s a higher quality option, I’ll buy it”
I’ve got this far and I haven’t even talked to you about the flavours. A self-confessed marketing obsessive, Carlo has come up with genius names for each and every one of his 12 ‘standard’ flavours as well as his eight ‘specials’ that rotate every two weeks. The names have become so well known that you can even buy a t-shirt with them all on the back.
I tried an outrageous amount of ice cream on my visit but I’ll highlight a couple of flavours and combinations that really stood out. Firstly, ‘Corsica’ — this is cream cheese and fig (Viennese of course) and is one of the lightest gelatos that I’ve ever tasted, in turn allowing the fresh quality of the fruit to shine all on it’s own. The pistachio is another example of this: unfussy processes and simple recipes mean that the flavour of the Bronte nuts steals the show — this is one where you really get that ‘warm ice-cream’ feeling. Meanwhile, ‘Byblos’ is a nod to Carlo’s middle-eastern roots and combines those same pistachios with orange blossom for a refined flavour unlike anything I have had before.
“I’m a mad guy with a thousand ideas. I try them and most of them end up on the floor. Some though, some make you go wow and the customers only ever get to try the wow”.
When I asked about the process behind coming up with all of these different crazy and innovative flavour combinations the response was typically frank: “I’m a mad guy with a thousand ideas. I try them and most of them end up on the floor. Some though, some make you go wow and the customers only ever get to try the wow”.
There are other areas too where Carlo combines classic tradition with innovation. A specially designed toastie-maker style machine facilities his ‘oxymoron’. The Italian classic of brioche filled with gelato is toasted for just long enough that the bun itself is piping hot but the ice-cream within stays cold and doesn’t melt (hazelnut comes highly recommended…).
In keeping with the theme of attention to detail, Carlo extends his passion to coffee too. He worked with a local roaster over the course of several months to develop his blend of arabica and robusta that goes not only in his ice cream and espresso machines but is also on offer to buy in packs in store. It lines up alongside a delightfully curated selection of deli items from wine to biscuits and, at Christmas time, pannetone from personal friends who run a bakery in Italy. The cones are covered off too — Carlo would definitely prefer that you took your time savouring the product out of a cup but if you insist on a cone then he has searched high and wide to find one with enough olive oil content to remain sturdy and perhaps even enhance your gelato.
Like all good eateries, Gelato Carlo succeeds because it keeps one goal and ethos firmly in mind and won’t let anything knock it off course. The aim for its passionate owner was to transform gelato into a luxury indulgence at an affordable price and that goal has more than been achieved. Anyone and everyone can come, try as many flavours as they like, and pay as little as €2.90 for the experience. There are 153 ‘eissalons’ in Vienna, more ice-cream shops per head than anywhere else in the world, and yet in just two years this one has deservedly risen to the top. It was best summed up by Carlo himself as we bid goodbye: “I wanted to turn gelato from a quick snack into a delightful dessert, I think that I’ve achieved that”.
