Gelato man gets around

His real name is Anthony Barton, but to his family, friends and followers he's Tony Gelato, the only man in the Sacramento region who makes gelato to sell to local restaurants. Barton creates his creamy, dreamy Italian ice cream in a back room of Cup-A-Joe, a small coffee shop off Douglas Boulevard in Roseville. His creation can be found at the café as well as at half a dozen eateries around the Sacramento area, including his own restaurant, My Brother Vinny's in Folsom. Piatti and La Provence in Roseville, Latitudes Restaurant in Auburn and Michelangelo's in Sacramento also feature at least one of Barton's flavors. "It tastes just as good as your super premium ice cream products, like HTMagen-Dazs," Barton declares.However, it's not just ice cream. "It is Italian ice cream," Barton quickly adds. "If you were in Italy, you'd call ice cream gelato ... It's a religion over there. They go through the garbage for wrappers and cones to see which gelateria is the best. It's a pretty big game over there." WorldOfIceCream.com describes gelato as true Italian ice cream with no added air whipped in like most ice creams. The Web site also states that gelato recipes usually include more egg yolks and milk and less cream than regular ice cream. It actually has less fat than regular ice cream. Barton said this creates the density, creaminess and silkiness of gelato and compared it to frozen custard. "You don't need much," Barton said. "It's just a little carafe, a little boat of creamy, smooth, mmmm." Danny Panasiuk, co-owner of Cup-A-Joe and a fan of Barton's gelato, said that's what makes the dessert so decadent."There's a taste, flavor and density unlike regular ice cream," he explained. "You don't have to eat a lot of it. It's a sweet, delicate dessert." Like American ice cream, Barton offers gelato in many flavors, from vanilla to spumoni, an Italian favorite. Pistachio is the flavor currently featured at My Brother Vinny's on historic Sutter Street."I've played around with flavors, like honey lavender," Barton said adding he's also perfecting a chestnut flavor and is working on a special rose variety for his daughter's upcoming wedding shower. "I have fanciful flavors for adults," he said. "I have flavors for kids and young people, like cappuccino chip and espresso." Of course, he also makes cookies-and-cream and chocolate varieties for the children, he said. "No matter your age - girls, boys, kids, adults, teens - ice cream makes people smile," he said. "And to think that you made it, it's pretty awesome. If you hit the soul and the tummy and the mind at the same time, that's pretty cool for a chef." Barton started making gelato in 2002, but the business has been around for years. Now called Anthony's #1 Gelato, the business used to be called No.1 Gelato and was first located in the TJ Maxx shopping center in Roseville before relocating to the Granite Bay Village shopping center where it operated for many years. "No. 1 Gelato has been a Roseville favorite for years," Panasiuk said. "When I was in high school (in the late 1980s) I had a lot of friends who worked there." Now it's teamed up with another Roseville landmark: Cup-A-Joe has been at the corner of Douglas and Judah Street for 11 years. "(No. 1 Gelato) is one of those things that will never go away. It just needed a rebirth," Panasiuk said.Barton hopes to slowly increase his customer base, but for now it's still a pretty small operation, he said. Barton currently makes about 100 gallons of gelato a year. The process includes mixing different ingredients and slowly churning the mixture before deep freezing it, a formula Barton learned through the Culinary Institute of America. But Barton does add one semi-secret ingredient: Care. "It's kind of a hobby, but it's not a hobby because it takes a lot of money and a lot of hard work and a lot of time, a lot of care," he said. His customers can taste it. "It's excellent," Panasiuk said. "Gelato, I think, is far more superior than getting a pint of Dreyer's. Or even Cold Stone or Baskin Robbins." Cup-A-Joe currently offers four flavors, but Panasiuk said he plans to offer gelato at night and hopes the trend will take off. "We're in the beginning stages of (selling) it," he said. The favorite is also catching on at Barton's home. "There is no ice cream in our house. Just gelato," he said. Hence the nickname Tony Gelato.