Dalston's Secret Gelateria

How a small slice of Argentina’s late night dessert culture found its way to East London.

Words Nicolas Payne-Baader

Photography Meara Kallista Morse

Tucked away in a Dalston warehouse, down an alleyway and behind a metal door, sandwiched between furniture restorers and graphic designers, is a small slice of Buenos Aires. When you finally find the door, the gentle thrum of freezers fills the room. It’s not the first place you’d expect to find a gelateria, but this warehouse is home to Tano, aLondon home for Argentinian style Gelato.

At one end of the room, Tomas Rizzo switches on a large metal machine and carefully starts to pour in a home made pistachio butter mixed with milk, sugar and cream. The mixture began life as chopped pistachios imported from Turkey, before Tomas churned and crushed the nuts by hand, building the base of arguably his most popular flavour. “Not very many people do this part,” he informs me of his hand hewn pistachios. “But it really means you get the best texture, it’s totally worth it.”