Andrea Bocelli gets a backstage gelato delivery
His flavor of choice: Amarena cherries and fior di latte.
Andrea Bocelli gets requests all the time.
Friday night, before his show at the Wells Fargo Center, the tenor made one of his own: the "Desire" flavor of gelato from Center City's Gran Caffe L'Aquila.
It's Amarena cherries and fior di latte, and Bocelli remembered it from two years ago, when the restaurant catered his dressing room. Bocelli's staff, which ate at the restaurant the night before, offered owners the chance to deliver it personally.
The gelato is made by GCL partner Stefano Biasini, a winner of the World Cup of Gelato. Biasini has been on Italian gelato lovers' radar for years since he and business partner Michele Morelli owned the first Gran Caffe L'Aquila in L'Aquila, Italy, which was destroyed in a 2009 earthquake.
Biasini and Morelli moved to Philadelphia and with a third partner, Riccardo Longo, opened the Philadelphia branch at 1716 Chestnut St. in early 2015.
Biasini, incidentally, will represent Team USA in the next Coppa del Mondo Di Gelateria, which will be held Jan. 20-24, 2018, in Rimini, Italy.