Antica Gelateria Gentile

Fabio! Where have you gone? We miss your gelato so much!!! And Summer’s coming…

Best gelato in all of New York, nothing even comes close.

This place is the real deal. Everything is authentic Italian, not just the gelato. Almost the entire menu is in Italian. The people: the owner Francesco, the two guys, and the cute girl are all from Italy. They chat in Italian behind the counter. There is a lot of history and culture surrounding the shop. The gelateria was started in Bari, Italy in 1880 by Francesco’s family. Francesco is the fifth generation operating the gelateria. Everything is made in-​house with the exception of the biscotti, which is imported from their business in Italy.
I tried the plain focaccia stuffed with mortadella and provolone cheese, a cone of pistachio and hazelnut nocciola gelato, Italian espresso, and almond biscotti. All super delicious and worth their weight in gold! I was told the proper Italian way of eating the cone is to ditch the spoon and just bite into it! Highly recommend this place for those looking for authentic gelato and a sense of Italy. Ciao!

The focaccia sandwich with mortadella, provolone cheese and tomatoes was excellent.
Also had to try their gelato based on great reviews and it was truly very tasty and not too sweat.

I am another fan of this place! +1 me!
Lovely little gelato shop with generous amount served! Very creamy and delicious, and it’s their recipe for generations. Coffee is great also!
The owner of the shop, Francesco, is a super friendly, passionate guy. He’s wonderful to talk to and very sweet. I also wish him best of luck with the business!!! Thanks for having me!

STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING IMMEDIATELY!
I don’t even have words to describe the overwhelmingly delicious experience I was just privileged to have! This place is a quite literally a HIDDEN gem. Tucked beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, this sweet, milky paradise is just what I needed on this humid afternoon.
I walked around the corner because I was desperately craving something sweet and my lazy friend found it too impossible to remove herself from bed to come downstairs and check out Antica Gelateria. I highly recommend doing the same, even if your location is several miles away.
In order to avoid severe and extreme melting, I asked for their smallest to-​go containers they had, so that I could bring back a sampling for lazy and me. Turns out, their «small» is the equivalent of a pint of ice cream and will cost you $ 10.90, for any two flavors. It’s HUGE! Then, of course, there’s the large, which is easily 1.5 pints, costs $ 19.90, and wins you any three flavors.
Silly me. I walked away with two smalls for Lazy and I, not knowing how phenomenal, creamy, smooth and irresistibly appetizing this frozen treat would be! I could’ve had a large, or two large take out containers with six unbelievable flavors! Alas, my tummy can hod no more, and I think the pint’s equivalent was more than enough.
That said, I enjoyed the dark chocolate and hazelnut, while my friend snacked on the crème caramel and dark chocolate. The gelato came with a complimentary bag of biscotti and pizelles (all pastries and cookies, etc. made on-​site) which complemented the flavors of the gelato so very well.
There was melted dark chocolate all over my fingers and definitely the amalgamated hazelnut and dark chocolate soup running down my chin and neck. I didn’t dare take a second’s respite from spooning this milky ambrosia into my mouth to clean up (and BTW, they should start selling their gelato with serving spoons and/​or shovels so that customers can be really effective in beasting on this). This is hands down some of the best gelato I’ve ever had and i can’t wait to go back and try the crepes, pastries and every other frozen flavor they have to offer.
It’s going to be really difficult to keep myself away from this place. I don’t know that it’s worth it to even try, and perhaps a more realistic approach would be… buy bigger pants. I’m in love!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am NOT a gelato person usually. I mean, I love it as it is a frozen dairy confection, but I’ll take real ice cream over it any day of the week. But I am always willing to try a new place, so as soon as I heard of this place I had to go check it out.
It’s hidden away AF, which explains why I only just got intel on it. It’s inside a mini-​mall type place (which Williamsburg has a few of) of which only three units appear to be in use.
The building is immediately beside the Williamsburg bridge and there is a little bench out front for sitting on which is nice, albeit noisy. I fell in love with the noise of the city long ago though, so this sort of thing is music to my ears tbh.
Inside the unit for the gelateria is pretty big for what I was expecting, and they have various baked goods also which I need to return for at some point. There was a super sweet and super helpful girl serving the night I went (there was a guy also, who was busy washing out the gelato machine and tending to stuff) who would have let me try every single flavor if I wanted to. She also let me try the whipped cream they top everything with (optionally). It was awesome.
Anyhoo, anytime I try gelato my first option is ALWAYS to try the pistachio and here’s why. Pistachios are expensive af, so a lot of places use cheaper almonds and just add pistachio flavoring. The taste of this is obvious, but they also tend to add green food coloring which is the greatest giveaway. If a pistachio gelato is bright green, leave. The girl handed me a sample spoon of the pistachio and it was a yellowish hint, so immediately I knew this place was legit. And so I immediately ordered a cup with pistachio, almond and hazelnut flavors. Other than dark chocolate I feel like these are always the go-​to flavors for gelato. The peach sorbet she let me try was refreshing as hell also. I was tempted to go back in for more after finishing these.
Long story short, hopefully this place gets more coverage and more business as it really is tucked away out of the way. Places like Grom and L’Arte have survived many years in NYC and I’d rate this place above both of them so hopefully they thrive also.

We just found this Gelateria because some Friends from Williamsburg suggested us to go and try their home made gelato… The experience was just great! Friendly people At The desk and The INSOMNIA Flavor was amazing!
…100% reccomended

This place is perfect. I don’t think my husband and I spoke while we ate. We got a cup with lemon celery and cantaloupe sorbet and another with tiramisu and dark chocolate gelato. All were divine.
I’d forgotten that gelato could taste this good.

Absolutely amazing Gelateria and Espesso! Authentic family recipe, flavor combinations are unreal. Bedford and Berry worth the visit!
Flavors like Ricotta Caramel Fig and by far the best pistachio I have EVER had

If you’re looking for authentic gelato, Italian ices, coffee, breads and cookies, this is the place. Tucked away on the south side of Williamsburg, this gem should be on your list of places to try and go to spots. This is exactly what South Williamsburg needed as we were lacking a great dessert /​bakery /​coffee spot.

Amazing gelato, awesome owner. So friendly and genuinely excited to share their product and history. Will be back!

If I could give more than 5 stars I would.
This is by definition the excellence of Italian artisanal GELATO.
I had a large cup with dark chocolate (fantastic) melon sorbet (so thick and rich in flavour, simply amazing) and fig ricotta, creamy and smooth, wonderful.
I would say this is by far the best Gelato in NYC just because it’s made according the italian artisanal receipe… Fresh ingredients (no fake powders or artificial colours) and the main ingredient: PASSION
These guys are great.
They even make some amazing Focaccia Pugliese, croissant, Panzerotti and great Panini.
Good job guys, best of luck!

Run here, don’t walk for the best gelato and affogato I have had in the city. Eric had their house special (a creamy lemon) and white chocolate and I had an affogato with vanilla bourbon gelato. Everything was absolutely delightful. Wow!

This is absolutely the best gelato in NY!
It is kind a hard to find this good gelato even in Italy (I lived in Italy)!
You should definitely try it!!!

Brooklyn is full of reverent homages to the best food items, whether global, local or things you thought were amazing when you were a kid. Antica Gelateria Gentile is none of those things. It’s just the real deal — authentic Italian gelato made by a family from Bari who have been making it for generations. How they found themselves under the Williamsburg Bridge on the rapidly changing seam line between North and South Williamsburg is a mystery, but just be grateful, go there and have some insane nearly black chocolate gelato. I want to go back for the affogato, a transcendent marriage of hot espresso and (cold) ice cream that I definitely don’t deserve, but maybe you do.

I hope this place does well and people support their business– the owners are so nice. They gave us lots of samples and took the time to explain the history of their gelato and their hometown (Bari) in Italy. The gelato was really creamy and rich, and the cones were homemade there. They even had these cute little sample-​sized cones. Great place.

As of this writing (March 2015) half of the reviews I’ve written have been for gelaterie. In Italy.
Antica Gelateria Gentile is as good as any of them, or Grom, or Il Laboratorio, or the Gelateria at Eataly. Maybe even better. This place is *that* good.

Hidden in the heart of Williamsburg i just discovered this authentic Italian place. It’s a gelato shop, but there is so much more! They have this amazing Affogato which is coffee with a cream made using an old Italian recipe low fat and with 85% chocolate… mmmmm delicious!!! They have panzerotti (another unique speciality) and even hot croissant with cream and nutella creps and juices… Everything looks so good! Cant wait to go back!

Walking around Williamsburg, through Bedford Ave, I was suddenly captured by some flags on a building with sign «ARTISAN MALL». I walked in and I discovered this typical industrial space with some stores. My first stop was in this small place called ANTICA GELATERIA GENTILE where two kind and friendly guys serve the best italian gelato I’ve ever ate in New York. Here everything is home & fresh made with the best ingredients directly from Italy. I had Cioccolato Fondente & Pistacchio Gelato with their home made Cialda. Delicious! They also serve the typical italian Espresso and all kind of coffee products, fresh juices, crepes and for lunch some Apulian products like Focaccia and Panzerotto…
I will absolutley come back again!