On a hot summer or early fall day in NE PDX, who could turn down a tasty scoop or two of gelato? With flavor choices like stracciatella (vanilla with shreds of chocolate added at the last moment), espresso, chocolate, vanilla bean, Oregon hazelnut, and lemon sorbetto, certainly no one I know. So what luck that two experienced PDX food and beverage pros opened Pronto Gelato just a few blocks north of B-W at 4205 NE Alberta Court, fronting on NE 42nd Avenue.
George Kaden, owner and chef at the highly rated Campana Italian restaurant in the Woodlawn neighborhood, and business partner Andrea Spella, owner of popular Spella Caffè, joined forces in early 2023 to buy a small gelato wholesaler in Eugene. They moved operations to Portland last fall, leasing space in their current Cully neighborhood digs.
The “scoop shop,” as Pronto’s team calls it, opened in late May this year. A few details, such as hiring a manager, were still being worked out when I interviewed Kaden in June.
The name Pronto means “ready” in Italian, according to Kaden, as in “I’m ready to eat gelato,” which is denser and has a lower level of milk fat than traditional ice cream.
It’s hard to miss the place, which features a vibrant yellow, brown, and blue mural facing Alberta Court, and matching bright yellow chairs and tables on an outdoor patio.
The yellow is highly intentional: “You can see it from space,” Kaden jokes. And so far, interest is high, he says. After all, “it’s ice cream, and it’s an easy sell.”
Pronto’s hours of operation are Thursday and Friday from 3 to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 9 p.m.
Chris Rauber and his wife, Kim Williams, moved to Portland and B-W in the summer of 2022 after many years in the San Francisco Bay Area. He worked as a journalist at the S.F. Business Times and other publications. He was born in Oregon.