By Maggie Cassidy
Northeastern students don’t have to book a flight to Italy to savor the taste of gelato. A trip down Massachusetts Avenue to sweets shop Bon Bon, located a few stores away from CVS and across from the Christian Science Center Reading Room, offers more than 20 different flavors of the treat ranging from plain chocolate to “Le Bon Bon” – triple espresso, mascarpone cheese and chocolate chunks.
Store manager Tina Drouin, who helped open the shop with Bruce Sabo in late March, said while many people don’t realize the shop is there, passersby are beginning to take notice.
“A ton of people have just been coming in lately and saying, ‘When did you open?'” she said. “It’s been very busy since students got back. A lot of people are giving good feedback. It’s something different to the area. There are a lot of ice cream shops around here, but nobody around here has good gelato.”
Most of the shop’s customers are college students, a fact Drouin attributes to its location.
“We’re in the middle of Northeastern, Berklee, the Conservatory. … We’re definitely seeing the benefit of being in the middle of the college area,” said Drouin, who graduated from Berklee in 2004 and hopes to help Sabo open a second Bon Bon in either the North or South End.
Drouin said Sabo, who owns flower shop Boston Rose a few stores away from Bon Bon, decided to follow his dream of opening an ice cream and candy shop when he saw the space open up for leasing early this year.
The pair brainstormed the idea for the store and decided on gelato because of its health factor and visual appeal.
Unlike many ice cream stores, which display their ice cream in deep buckets, the gelato can be displayed on thin trays that customers can see more easily.
“The texture and the gelato taste a lot better if you serve it warmer than ice cream,” Drouin said. “So you can actually see the gelato [the way it’s displayed]. It’s visually eye-catching. It’s almost like an art form. We put fresh fruits on the fruits flavors, fresh nuts on the nuts flavors.”
Drouin said Bon Bon uses all natural, fresh ingredients in its gelato, with no concentrates or artificial additions. She said their gelato, which is 93 percent fat free, is a healthier alternative to ice cream because it is not made with the “heavy butter fat” used in ice cream.
“A lot of people love the fact that it has a lot lower fat than ice cream,” she said. “It tastes like you’re eating really, really good ice cream but you’re actually eating way less calories and way less fat.”
Bon Bon charges $4.50 for a cup of gelato, but that’s not the only thing on the menu. Drouin said sorbets, which are 100 percent fat free, are customer favorites. More than 120 different kinds of candy, like jelly beans, chocolates and sour treats, are available for those with a sweet tooth. The shop also sells Greek pastries and more than 35 flavors of fresh tea. Drouin hopes to offer signature smoothie drinks and hot chocolate in the near future.
