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Davvero Gelato is located at 6931 Lakeside Ave.
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The walls of Davvero are dotted with mementos.
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Davvero Gelato will have outdoor seating just steps away from the shop. Richmond-based Sure Hand Signs completed all the signage for the business.
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A barber chair inside Davvero is from the former barbershop in the space, which originally opened in 1948.
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More mementos and family photos inside Davvero Gelato
Davvero Gelato owner Layne Montgomery offers a glimpse of her life experiences through the frozen treats she makes. She describes her super soft pistachio gelato as “just what you find in Italy,” the place she initially became infatuated with the concoction. Anything with peanut butter speaks to her longtime affinity for the toasty flavor, and the trio of almond, lemon and saffron has been locked in her memory bank since she first tasted the combo in Bologna.
Montgomery’s forthcoming brick-and-mortar shop, opening Sept. 7 in a pint-sized space at 6931 Lakeside Ave., will bring these taste experiences front and center for the public.
“Nostalgia plays a big part for me, because when I think back to the places I remember from traveling or random cafes, that’s kind of magical, and that’s what I want Davvero to be like,” she says.
Layne Montgomery, owner of Davvero Gelato
Montgomery, 38, describes Davvero’s selections — every one of them vegan — as incredibly creamy, dense and and flavor-forward.
For the past four years, the Richmond native, often supported by her father, Dave, has been popping up around the city with her traveling small-batch gelato cart. Often claiming Libby Hill Park as a home base, with its sunsets as a frequent backdrop, soon she won’t have to check the weather forecast so carefully.
Montgomery’s gelato dream has been a lifetime in the making. At an early age, she says, “I had a notebook and would write down these flavor ideas, and I kind of kept doing it.” A Richmond native, she can recount the ice creams of her youth as if it were yesterday: peanut butter milkshakes from Star-lite, Reese’s Pieces sundaes at Friendly’s and frequent visits to Bev’s in Carytown with her family.
Possessing a natural curiosity for the world, Montgomery landed in Italy, the birthplace of gelato, after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in printmaking.
“I was there for three months and fell in love with gelato,” she says. “Italy was the launching point. Wherever we went, we always researched, ‘Where’s the best gelato?’ and would find little hidden spots. We ate gelato all over the country.”
During the week, she taught English, and on the weekends she would score plane tickets and explore nearby countries, earning nearly 30 stamps in her passport. Istanbul and its bustling culture and culinary scene made an impression, and she would call Turkey’s largest city home for nearly eight years. Her apartment was nestled by the sea and located above a gelateria.
It was a trip to Bologna, however — home to Carpigiani Gelato University, a school dedicated to the cool craft — that would change the course of her life. “I was like, ‘This is a wild idea, but what if I just took the month to go and see if I even like making [gelato]?’” Montgomery says.
Turns out she did. “I thought, ‘I can try to do this when I get back to Richmond.’”
In 2018, she returned to the United States with a vision to bring the business to fruition, and in 2020 Montgomery officially launched Davvero Gelato. Since then, she has become known for her wildly unique, globally influenced and compellingly dairy-free creations.
Last year, she began looking for a building, and her sights landed on an old Lakeside barbershop space that originally opened in 1948. “I love the location and the old feel of it, and it’s tiny,” she says. “I always like places that are warmer and cozy, and I was like, ‘I could do that with [the space] there’ and make it really personal and put my touch onto everything.”
Channeling the feel of a 1950s soda fountain or gelateria, the 480-square-foot space doubles as a personal scrapbook. Inside, a clock on the wall and a large letter “M” are from her grandfather’s auto body shop, along with a picture of dogs playing poker that he was fond of. Her grandmother Joyce smiles down from a frame, while a Muhammad Ali print and a barber chair in the corner are nods to the previous tenant. An evil eye in the front window is a gift from a former student, hanging beside trinkets from Turkey, postcards that previously hung on her apartment walls and a painting she created in college. The tin ceiling above has been painted its original shade of green.
“This place has history, and I want to carry that on,” Montgomery says. “I want it to feel authentic.”
Specializing in small-batch selections, Davvero plans to offer 10 continually rotating flavors from lemon and cookie dough to Alfonso mango made with fresh ginger, ube using real purple yams, and gianduia, or hazelnut. Patrons can expect cups and cones, along with gelato paninis — a scoop of choice secured by a fluffy toasted vegan brioche — granita and soft serve gelato. The shop will also serve coffee, including cold brew and espresso, in addition to special beverages such as luscious frappogatos (a scoop of gelato in coffee), Greek whipped coffee, Turkish salep and masala chai.
All of Davvero’s gelatos are naturally 100% vegan. While Montgomery isn’t opposed to dairy, her mother, Julie, is lactose intolerant, and Montgomery finds value in offering a gelato that everyone can enjoy. For fruit-forward flavors or sorbets, she substitutes water for milk, while nonfruit flavors such as vanilla or cookie butter are made using housemade oat milk or nut butters and creams, which she sells by the jar. The result: a creamier, more ingredient-driven and pure product.
“You get that punch of flavor because there’s not milk intercepting it,” Montgomery says. “I try to get really good ingredients that are also ethically sourced. My gelato is really balanced; I like playing with different textures, and not too sweet, and I always have salt in there,” she says.
She says that regardless of the base of her creations, she always comes back to the name of her business, which translates from Italian to “Real Gelato.”
“The bar in my head is what you would get in Italy; if it’s not that good, then I wouldn't do it,” Montgomery says. “For me, it’s kind of just like those are the parameters I work with. I’m interested in making the best possible product.”
Davvero Gelato’s initial hours are Thursday from 3 to 8 p.m., Friday from 3 to 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 9 p.m. In October, its hours will expand for espresso and coffee service.
