Overview

Paciugo freshly prepares its gelato each morning before opening at each location, serving 30 to 38 flavors daily. Based on third-generation Italian recipes, Paciugo has faithfully and authentically created over 200 flavors of gelato.

Paciugo gelato is authentically made with the highest quality ingredients, including whole milk and real fruits. Nuts, candied fruit and several others ingredients utilized in Paciugo are imported from Italy and are among the finest in the world. Our Extra-brute Cocoa is imported from Belgium and doesn’t contain any vegetable oils, only cocoa butter. There are no preservatives in Paciugo gelato. Since Paciugo recipes call for no cream or butter, the fat content is 3.5% (a little higher for flavors that contain cocoa and nuts), considerably less than ice cream, making Paciugo a more wholesome and nutritious product. The milk- based gelato is 70% lower in fat than premium ice creams, while the fruit-based product is fat free. In addition to Paciugo’s authenticity and wholesomeness, it is also prepared freshly each morning before the day’s guests arrive. This results in a richer taste and smoother texture versus conventional ice cream. Paciugo gelato is creamy and smooth, however it’s not heavy and thick and doesn’t coat your mouth with fat. It’s not too sweet and doesn’t leave unpleasant aftertaste. Only a few recipes call for eggs, therefore Paciugo gelato is rich in flavor with a controlled calories content.

Italian Gelato

Italy has long been considered as the country of choice when it comes to food. It’s a country famous for having perfected over the centuries thousands of unforgettable recipes, made with simple, high quality ingredients. We are very proud of our recipes and techniques and we keep working tirelessly on perfecting the quality of our food. European Union recognized Italian peculiarity about ingredients, recipes and food by regulating DOP, DOC and IGP standards according to regional ingredients, processes and techniques.

Our commitment to “Slow Food”
Italy is the home country of “Slow Food”, a movement that wants to preserve and defend culinary traditions and hand-made, high quality foods.

Paciugo has been twice selected by Slow Food Dallas Convivium as one of the delegates to Terra Madre. The international Slow Food conference "Terra Madre: World Meeting of Food Communities," is a forum for those who seek to grow, raise, catch, create, distribute and promote food in ways that respect the environment, defend human dignity, and protect the health of consumers. More information at www.slowfoodusa.org, www.terramadre2004.org, and www.terramadre2006.org. In Tuscany, modern gelato was originally made with milk, eggs, sugar, cream and natural flavors. In Sicily, because of the hot weather, gelato was meant to be very refreshing and was made with water, fresh fruit and sugar. This gelato without milk is called 'Sorbetto'. As the years passed, recipes have changed and been refined and new machines are now used that allow a smoother consistency by quickening the freezing process. We Italians are very passionate about our gelati and sorbetti that we enjoy during unforgettable Italian summer evenings.

The Ginattas

Fast forward to the year 2000, when Ugo Ginatta, his wife Cristiana and his son Vincenzo arrived in Dallas. Inspired by their love and understanding of authentic Italian cuisine, the Ginatta family wanted to bring the real and refreshing Italian gelato experience to the U.S., where the ice cream industry was dominated by trendy, heavy, cream-based products. Their plan was simply to provide an authentic Italian experience based on the wonderful taste of Italian ice cream, known ubiquitously throughout Italy as gelato (the word gelato in Italian means ice-cream).

On April 5th, 2000, Paciugo was incorporated as Dallas' first and only Italian gelato company. September 9, 2005 the first Paciugo gelateria opened near the corner of West Lovers Lane and Inwood Road. Paciugo began by offering over 80 traditional Italian gelato flavors, made with natural and fresh ingredients. Word spread quickly around the Dallas Metroplex that not only was authentic Paciugo gelato incredibly delicious, but it also represented a lighter alternative to standard ice cream fare.

Ugo and Cristiana worked tirelessly to create new authentic flavors of gelato to their following and today offer over 200 flavors of Paciugo gelato! The variations include a ‘no-sugar-added’ product and a spectacular soy-based product, in addition to their traditional milk-based and water-based flavors.

The response among the legions of Paciugo’ites was so incredible, that The Dallas Observer selected Paciugo as the ‘Best Ice Cream’ in Dallas for the year 2002, 2003, 2004 & 2005. The clean sweep of this award noted that Paciugo was “tantalizing”, “adventurous” and “sits lightly”.

The Paciugo Promise:

• To consistently provide authentic Italian gelato made from only the best ingredients. • To always exceed the customer expectations. • To stand by our motto, “Ante Lucrum Nomen–Reputation Before Profit.”

Nutrition

The key to making the best gelato is to use the finest ingredients and handcraft it in small batches on site every day. We select only the best ingredients from local farmers and specialized artisans in Italy for our recipes. We prepare all ingredients by hand to preserve the supreme, uncompromising taste of our products.

The high cocoa butter content in the Belgian extra-brute chocolate makes our chocolate flavors luxuriously rich and creamy. Prized candied black cherries (amarene) from Italy create the sweet and tangy flavors of your beloved Amarena Black Cherry Swirl. Likewise, roasted hazelnut from Piedmont, almonds and pistachios from Sicily, and fresh fruit from local farmers, all accentuate the best of the gelato art.

Paciugo gelato contains no cream and no trans fats. Following the traditional recipes, we make our gelato with whole milk, water, or soy.

Nutritional Information Overview and Online Nutritional Calculator

Serving size: 100 grams (3.5oz)

Milk-based gelato
The gelato averages about 140 to 170 in calories and 3.5 to 6 grams of fat, which is 70% less fat than premium ice cream. It comes with about 24 grams of sugar.

Soy-based gelato
Less than 150 calories, 3 to 4 grams of fat, and about 20 grams of sugar.

Water-based gelato
Only 100 calories with ZERO fat content! It comes with about 20 grams of sugar.

No-sugar-added gelato
For a no-sugar diet, try our no-sugar-added flavors made with whole milk and sweetened with Splenda. These flavors have about 90 calories and 10 grams of net carbs.

Online Nutritional Information
There are many ways to access detailed nutritional information on specific flavors and cup sizes:

For specific flavor(s), go to www.paciugo.com/html/products and select Flavor List. Click on the flavor you are interested in to get more details on its ingredients, origins and nutrition.

For flavor combinations in a specific cup size, you can go to http://www.paciugo.com/calc/ for the new interactive flavor nutrition calculator. Select the number of flavors based on cup sizes, pick out your flavor combinations from a list of available flavors and get instant nutritional data about your cup selection in less than a second.

* Nutritional data is not available for all flavors, including seasonal and past flavors no longer on the flavor list.

Press Notions

“… makes delectable holiday flavors!” – Dallas Morning News/Susan Taylor

“… tantalizing … adventurous … sits lightly!” – The Dallas Observer

One of the seven “America’s best places for a cool summer treat.” – Town & Country

“… has all the tasty, cooling benefits of ice cream less the fat and with a fresher taste!” –Where Dallas

“… to die for!” – Dallas Business Journal

“… a schmear of black cherry swirl could bring peace to the Middle East!” – Texas Living

“Paciugo gelato will make your dream dessert come true!” – D Magazine

“This is an absolutely superior product!” – Liener Temerlin (Temerlin McClain)

“We bet liras to doughnuts these shops will be as ubiquitous as Starbucks.” – Dallas Home and Garden Magazine

“… a luxurious Italian version of ice cream that is smoother and denser than the American standard!”
– The Dallas Morning News Guide

“This place draws crowds all day long, but the line moves fast!” – Avid Golfer

“The obvious solution? Try a new delizioso flavor every day!” – Texas Monthly

“Everything was s-o-o-o good … luxuriously creamy!” – The Guide