Today we’d like to introduce you to Francesca Cavallari.
Hi Francesca, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My husband, Dante, and I were very sick about the situation in Italy, our Country. So in 2015, we decided to leave our permanent jobs – Dante officer in the Navy, me a professional beautician – and we opened our first DOLCE BACIO Italian artisan gelato and desserts food truck in Sydney-Australia for 2.5 years. We had a big success but our dream was coming to Texas. We fell in love with it during one of our unusual vacations in 2013.
Finally, in 2018 we put our feet here in Austin and started again a brand new food truck. Alone, with million of difficulties and sacrifices, hard moments, the pandemic… has been a rollercoaster. After almost three years in downtown, we have been blessed founding our new location at Four Points, in the back of the Rockhouse bar on 620N. A lot of people and families from America and all over the world come regularly for our gelato and sweets, appreciating the quality and authenticity.
We make everything from scratch using only fresh and healthy ingredients. The goal is to offer a genuine product, the same you would have when you go to Italy, explaining people that is possible having a delicious treat low in calories, not dangerous for the health or body shape! We have always a lot of vegan flavors available and we change options as much as we can. Beside gelato we offer handmade tiramisu’, cannoli with ricotta cheese or gelato, affogato and Italian coffee. We have now available also the coffee beans bags so you can make a delicious Italian coffee at your house.
We also have two mobile set up for private events and caterings. Our super cool pink vintage gelato bike and a small gelato bar. Our bike has become so popular, especially for weddings! We run a lot of events all over the year of any kind. The gelato bar is small, easy to set up and is perfect for events in the pool, apartments or small groups of people. We are so happy we can finally call Austin HOME.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. We started completely alone, no family, no friends, and we have been in Austin for half day before to move here, so we had no idea about the City and its areas. Chatting here and there with other food trucks owners, we founded our first spot on E6th and then on E.Cesar Chavez. We had 2.5 very hard years. We really worked our asses off, going around with flyers, free samples, the bike… to let people know about us but despite the efforts and sacrifices looked like nobody cared about us, giving the priority always to popular franchising and junk food. We spent days, nights, hours around downtown standing up with the bike; no toilets breaks… rain, sun… has been hard. Then Covid has been the cherry on the cake. The will to give up was there when we finally found our new location, 6900 Ranch Road 620N. People finally appreciate the quality and the authenticity of our products. There are great and bad days, of course, as in every business, but we finally have more satisfaction, we could hire some help, and start to live a little bit more of private life.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Dolce Bacio?
Authentic made from scratch Italian gelato and desserts.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
When people tell me our gelato is the best they ever tried in U.S. or that is the same one they had in Italy, even better, and that my tiramisu’ is the best ever. We work a lot of hours and we spend a lot in the finest ingredients; most of them come from Italy so they are really expensive. But if you want the best product is the first step. Step by step, we are starting to pick up the results of our sacrifices and building up a better future.
Contact Info:
- Email: dolcebacioit@gmail.com
- Website: www.dolcebaciogelato.com
- Instagram: dolce_bacio
- Facebook: @dolcebacioit
Image Credits
Dolce Bacio
