Of the shops frequented by Northeastern students on Huntington Avenue, Da Vinci Gelato & Waffle’s aesthetic stands out. A dozen blue chandeliers hang from high-vaulted ceilings; blue crushed velvet upholstery lines the booths; renowned Renaissance-period paintings feature a unique gelato-centered spin.
Da Vinci Gelato & Waffle opened Aug. 30 after nine months of construction, designing and decorating. The shop offers a total of 75 gelato and sorbet flavors with 24 displayed at once, pastries including macarons, pretzels and waffles — savory and sweet.
The owners, wife and husband Tatiana and Bruce Sabokrooh, live in Needham and also own neighboring restaurants Mamacita Comida and Gyroscope on Huntington Avenue, as well as the plant store Fern Flowers on Massachusetts Avenue.
More than two decades after opening their first business, the couple says that they continue to enjoy serving young people in the community. “I like the young energy. They’re happy. They’re outgoing,” Bruce Sabokrooh said. “We’ve had businesses in other areas where it’s a different demographic. It’s not quite the same. Here, the kids bring the energy. They’re out late. They’re happy all the time.”
Elizabeth Polche, a second-year international business major at Northeastern, said that she loves how the shop reminds her of Europe.
“I’m so happy to have a place near campus that reminds me of where I’ve felt the most happy,” Polche said. It’s the perfect environment to eat at with friends.”
Paris Green, a second-year economics and business administration major at Northeastern, said it is now one of her favorite gelato shops in Boston.
“It’s really fun,” she said. “It has a lot of great vibes and is the perfect place to study since it’s not too far from campus.”
The Sabokroohs credit Fern Flowers, their first business, as their starting point nearly 25 years ago. Their next business, Gyroscope, which serves Mediterranean food, opened in 2018. Mamacita followed in 2021. Now, in 2024, Da Vinci Gelato & Waffle marks their fourth business in the neighborhood.
In planning for this shop, the business owners’ goal was to create a space where students could socialize without alcohol, Tatiana Sabokrooh said. The idea to create a shop oriented around gelato came from her family, who emigrated 15 years ago from her home country of Moldova to Italy.
“We’ve been going back to visit them,” she said. “We got a lot of ideas. The culture is so beautiful over there.”
Once they landed on gelato and waffles, they worked on their recipes. As seasoned business owners, Bruce Sabokrooh said they focus on perfecting their offerings.
“I think it’s really important to give a good product, to really put your heart and soul into it,” he said. “Whether it’s even the macarons we [display] at the end, [and] you can’t even see them, those are organic, gourmet, the best we could find. … We have to [put] our best foot forward.”
Bruce Sabokrooh’s first exposure to business ownership came from his parents, who were in the flower business. After graduating with degrees in biochemistry and finance from Brandeis University, he worked a finance job in downtown Boston for just six months before quitting.
“Time flies when you’re here and at an office job, you just stare at the clock,” he said.
Now, Tatiana Sabokrooh, who left her job as a registered nurse in 2021, and Bruce Sabokrooh work together full-time on their businesses while raising their two elementary-aged children.
Considering their close proximity to neighboring colleges — Northeastern University, the New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music — the couple says they created and catered their menus to serve college students’ needs.
“We love our customers. We really do,” Tatiana Sabokrooh said. “They’re very intelligent people. They’re all studying. They know what’s good. They know what’s good quality. And that’s what we strive for.”
One of their employees at Da Vinci Gelato & Waffle is Mckenna Dahlen, a second-year psychology major at Northeastern. Since the shop’s opening, Dahlen said positive interactions with customers “make her day.”
“I don’t have to navigate tricky situations because no one really walks into a gelato and waffle shop mad,” she said. “They’re getting dessert; they’re going to be happy.”
The owners often don aprons and help out around the shop in between managing the other businesses out of “love” for their work, Bruce Sabokrooh said.
“We love this area,” he said. “We don’t want to go anywhere else.”
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