A whole burrata goes into the milk base. The finished gelato is layered with tomato coulis, then finished at the counter with South Australian extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of flaked sea salt. It tastes, deliberately, like bruschetta. It is also, unmistakably, gelato.
This is the current preoccupation at OVO Gelato Adelaide, where owners John Milky and Gaby Saleh have spent the past few months working out how far a savoury scoop can go. Alongside the burrata sits blue cheese and quince, served with a salt-and-pepper cracker so the whole thing reads as a cheese board that has been through a batch freezer. There is an olive oil gelato for anyone easing in gently, and a crème fraîche with caviar and salted potato crisps built for an OVO Studio event, the caviar chosen for its creamy, nutty finish rather than its shock value.
The scoops to order
Order the burrata as a single, not part of a larger cup. It needs the olive oil and salt to really hit, and a second flavour alongside it muddles the whole point.
The blue cheese and quince is the one that will divide a table, which is half the reason to order it. Anyone who has ever finished a long lunch with cheese and a sticky wine will recognise exactly what is happening.
The classics have not gone anywhere. Twelve flavours rotate through the cabinet at a time, made in small batches on site, and the pistachio and hazelnut are handled with the seriousness they deserve. Seasonal produce turns up when it turns up, which is how a golden kiwi fruit sorbetto ends up next to the tiramisu. There are collaborations too, including a buttered croissant gelato made with Proof Patisserie. A whiteboard in-store collects customer suggestions, and some of them get made.
Where it started
OVO opened in 2022 in the Newton shopping precinct, an area with a long Italian retail history and now a gelateria to match. Milky and Saleh already ran Clay & Co nearby, and the idea came from a gap they kept hearing about there: customers who wanted dessert but could not eat what was on offer.
So the cabinet carries gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan and keto-friendly gelati as a matter of course rather than as a concession. The OVO tart, built on gluten-free and dairy-free caramel with fresh banana and banana gelato, is the clearest expression of it, and it does not taste like a substitute for anything.
Two rooms, two moods
The Newton store is the one to sit in. Georgie Shepherd’s interior takes its cue from a Tuscan piazza: the 1970s building’s vaulted concrete ceiling stripped back and left raw, terrazzo underfoot, travertine, oak, cork and hand-trowelled plaster chosen for how they age rather than how they photograph. The counter carries a raked plaster texture that mimics the ridges gelato makes when it is worked. Potted olive trees, timber bi-folds that open to the street, custom furniture by Adelaide makers Remington Matters, lighting from Stepney’s Handmade and Found. It won attention in the design press, and deservedly.
The East End store at 24 Ebenezer Place, open since late 2023, is the louder sibling, built for a precinct where people are walking past at ten at night. It does more than gelato: Monastery coffee from early morning, bagels, açai, cold-pressed juice, pastries.
Where to find OVO Gelato
Newton: 10/3 Jan Street, Newton
Adelaide East End: 24 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide
The East End store opens early for coffee and runs late, until 10.30pm on Friday and Saturday nights. Check current hours before a late run.
Go for the burrata once, so you can say you have. Go back for the pistachio, which is the real measure of a gelateria.
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