Gelato vs. Ice Cream, and Where to Get Both in St. Louis

Revised August 20, 2026

Imagine it’s the first Thursday all year that stays warm after sundown. Dinner in Kirkwood is done, or the ballgame let out early, and somebody in the back seat says the word out loud. Ice cream. Ten minutes later you’re standing at a lit-up window reading a board that lists gelato in one column and ice cream in the other, at different prices, in different sized cups.

You pick one. It’s good. But somewhere between the first spoonful and the bottom of the cup the question shows up anyway: what is actually different about these two things, and did the smaller cup just cost more for no reason? Meanwhile a stand three miles away in Affton sells neither, because it only makes frozen custard — and a fair number of people in this metro would tell you that settles the whole argument.

There is a real answer, and it comes down to three things you can measure: how much butterfat is in it, how much air got whipped into it, and how cold it is when it reaches your spoon. Price, texture, and how loud the flavor tastes all fall out of those three. Here’s how it works, and where St. Louis’ own frozen dessert fits into the comparison.

Is gelato basically just ice cream?

No. Gelato is a different formula served a different way — less butterfat, far less whipped-in air, and a warmer serving temperature. Federal law sets a floor for anything sold as ice cream: under the FDA standard of identity at 21 CFR 135.110, ice cream must contain at least 10 percent milkfat and at least 20 percent total milk solids. Traditional gelato is built below that line, commonly in the 4 to 9 percent range.

That same rule also caps how much air a maker can sell you. Ice cream must weigh at least 4.5 pounds per gallon and carry at least 1.6 pounds of total food solids per gallon. Without that weight floor, a manufacturer could keep churning air into the mix until a gallon container held almost nothing.

The word for that whipped-in air is overrun, and it is the single biggest difference between the two products. Robert Roberts, head of Penn State’s food science department, explained the range in an April 2015 university piece: low-overrun ice creams run roughly 20 to 40 percent, meaning the air boosted the volume of the starting mix by that much, while high-overrun products reach up to 100 percent — double the original volume, light and fluffy. Gelato sits at the bottom of that scale, with very little air whipped in.

One more wrinkle that surprises people: there is no federal standard of identity for gelato at all. The International Dairy Foods Association said so plainly when it opposed a proposed California gelato standard in October 2013, noting that gelato has no federal definition and that each maker’s product carries different levels of dairy solids, fat, egg yolk solids, and flavoring. Ice cream and frozen custard are legally defined terms in this country. Gelato is a tradition, not a regulation.

What is so special about gelato ice cream?

Density and temperature. Because gelato carries so little air, a scoop of it weighs noticeably more than the same-size scoop of airy ice cream, and it lands on the tongue as dense and elastic rather than fluffy. It is also served warmer — commonly cited in the low teens Fahrenheit, against the 0 to 10 degree range Penn State says it serves its own hard-pack ice cream at.

Those two facts do the work. Fat coats your tongue and mutes aroma, so a lower-fat base lets fruit and nut flavors read sharper. Cold numbs your palate, so a few degrees warmer means you taste more of what’s there. That is why a lemon gelato can taste almost aggressive next to a lemon ice cream made from the same fruit, and why gelato pistachio tastes like pistachio instead of like sweet cream with a green tint.

The trade-off is that gelato is fragile. Warmer serving temperature and low fat mean it melts fast and goes grainy if it warms and refreezes. A gelato case is a fussier piece of equipment than a dipping cabinet, and a shop that runs both is running two different temperature zones on purpose.

Which is healthier, gelato or regular ice cream?

Gelato usually has less fat per bite, but that does not automatically make it the lighter dessert. Gelato bases typically run 4 to 9 percent butterfat against the 10 percent minimum U.S. law requires of ice cream, and many premium ice creams run considerably higher. So gram for gram, gelato is often the lower-fat choice.

The catch is the air. Since gelato is denser, an identical-looking scoop contains more actual dessert — more sugar and more milk solids — than a scoop of high-overrun ice cream. Gelato also tends to lean on sugar to keep the texture soft at that warmer serving temperature. Lower fat, more mass, often more sugar. Those partly cancel out.

The honest version: neither is health food, and the portion in front of you matters more than the category on the sign. If you want the lighter option, order the smaller size, or order a sorbetto, which is fruit and sugar with no dairy at all. Anyone managing blood sugar, cholesterol, or a dairy allergy should be reading the shop’s posted nutrition information rather than trusting the word gelato to do the work.

Is gelato ice cream expensive?

Gelato usually costs more per cup than a comparable scoop of ice cream, and there are real reasons rather than pure markup. Low overrun means the shop is selling you dessert instead of air, so a gallon of mix yields fewer servings. Gelato is also made in small batches, turns over faster, and sits in equipment that costs more to buy and run than a standard dipping cabinet.

For a baseline on the grocery side of the comparison, CNN reported on July 19, 2026 that the average price of a half gallon of packaged ice cream tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics slipped back below $6 in June 2026, after running near $6.26 for the prior two years and hitting roughly $6.49 in June 2025 — the drop credited to falling butter prices. Shop prices in the St. Louis metro are a different market entirely, and they move with rent, labor, and the weather, so ask at the window rather than trusting a number you read online.

Worth knowing before you compare receipts: a scoop shop is selling a made-on-site product with a person behind the counter, and a half gallon from the freezer aisle is selling you volume. Those are not the same purchase, and price per ounce is a poor way to judge either one.

Wildly off-topic — that drip under the sink needs a St. Louis plumber.

Where does frozen custard fit, and why does St. Louis care so much?

Frozen custard is ice cream with egg yolk in it, and unlike gelato, it is legally defined. The same FDA rule, 21 CFR 135.110, covers both products: it is called ice cream when it contains less than 1.4 percent egg yolk solids by weight, and frozen custard when it contains at least 1.4 percent. That yolk is why custard eats silkier and richer than either of the other two, and why it holds a spoon standing up.

This metro treats custard as its own food group, and that is not marketing. Ted Drewes has been selling frozen custard here since 1929 by the company’s own count — the Missouri Encyclopedia dates the first stand to 1930 on Natural Bridge Road — and the Chippewa Street stand opened in 1941 on an alignment of Route 66, where it still is. The concrete, the malt so thick it gets handed to you upside down, dates to 1959. The Chippewa stand opened its 97th season in 2026.

Custard also explains a habit visitors find strange. Around here the default summer stop is a walk-up window with a line in the parking lot, not a sit-down shop, and the line is part of the deal. It’s where teams end up after a game, which is roughly the same reason a Saturday morning in this town so often runs from a gym to a custard stand — if that is your household, our guide on signing your kid up for gymnastics in St. Louis covers the part that happens before the ice cream.

How can you tell real gelato from ice cream sold as gelato?

Look at the case before you look at the menu. Because there is no legal definition of gelato in the United States, the word on the sign guarantees nothing — the product in the pan does. Four tells are worth more than any label:

Color. Real pistachio is a dull khaki-brown, not fluorescent green. Banana is grayish, not yellow. Mint is off-white unless something was added to make it green. Bright, uniform, candy-store colors mean coloring, and coloring usually travels with the rest of the shortcuts.

How it’s held. Traditional Italian shops keep gelato in covered metal tins, called pozzetti, sunk into a cold well — you can’t see the product at all. Open display cases are common and fine, but towering whipped mountains with decorations stuck in them are a display technique, and holding a mound that tall generally takes more air and more stabilizer.

The flavor list. A short list that changes is a good sign, because it usually means small batches. Forty flavors available every day of the year usually means a mix shipped in rather than made on site. Neither is a crime, but they are different products.

The spade. Gelato is served with a flat paddle, not a round scoop, because it’s soft enough to spread and fold. If it comes out in hard spheres straight from the freezer, you are being handed something colder and harder than gelato is supposed to be.

Does Missouri or Illinois define what gelato is?

Neither state defines gelato, and both lean on the federal rules for the products that are defined. What each side of the river does regulate is the plant. In Missouri, a frozen dessert license must be obtained from the Department of Health and Senior Services by any food establishment, processing plant, or broker manufacturing or distributing ice cream, mellorine, or frozen dessert products in the state, under 19 CSR 20-1.025.

In Illinois, frozen desserts are handled as manufactured dairy products under Title 77 of the Illinois Administrative Code, Part 785, with supplemental requirements for plants that manufacture and package frozen desserts at Sections 785.900 through 785.990 — covering pasteurization of the mix, cooling, storage, lab testing, and labeling. Those rules also require dairy products to meet the federal standards of identity in Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, under the Illinois Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act at 410 ILCS 620.

The practical upshot for a customer in Belleville or Edwardsville is the same as for one in Florissant or St. Charles: a shop calling something ice cream or frozen custard has a federal composition standard to meet on both sides of the river, and a shop calling something gelato does not. Judge the gelato with your eyes and your spoon.

Where is the best place to get gelato?

The best gelato near you is almost always the shop making it on the premises in small batches, and you can usually confirm that by asking one question at the counter: do you make it here? A shop that does will tell you within about four seconds, and will often tell you what got made that morning. That answer is a better signal than any award sticker on the door.

In this metro, the search is worth doing by neighborhood rather than by ranking. Italian bakeries and cafes, coffee shops that added a case, and dedicated gelaterias all sell it, and the mix of them differs a lot between The Hill, Kirkwood, St. Charles, Maryland Heights, and the Metro East. Go for the small list, the muted colors, and the paddle. Ranked lists go stale; those three tells do not.

What ice cream and gelato shop owners deal with that customers never see

Ask anyone who runs a scoop shop and the same two complaints come up. First, the calendar does the hiring and firing. Ice cream production nationally peaks March through September, according to the International Dairy Foods Association, and a walk-up stand’s year is decided by maybe fourteen good weather weekends. A cold, wet June is not a slow month — it is a hole that November cannot fill. Ted Drewes historically closed for winter and sold Christmas trees to bridge the gap, which is the oldest answer in this market to a problem every operator still has.

Second, the mix is rarely what hurts. Labor, rent, and equipment do the damage, and running gelato alongside hard-pack means holding two temperature zones and eating more waste, because gelato that warms and refreezes is finished. The operators who make it work usually shrink the flavor list and turn batches faster instead of expanding the case. People search for this category locally and by neighborhood, so having a complete, accurate listing with real hours matters most in exactly the weeks that decide the year — which is the argument for getting listed on St Louis Near Me Directory before the season, not during it.

Frequently asked questions

Why do people prefer gelato over ice cream?

Texture and flavor intensity, mostly. Less air makes gelato dense and elastic instead of fluffy, and less butterfat plus a warmer serving temperature lets fruit, nut, and chocolate flavors come through sharper. Plenty of people prefer ice cream for the opposite reasons — it is colder, richer, and holds up better in a cone on a hot night.

Is gelato healthier than ice cream?

Usually lower in fat, not necessarily lighter overall. Gelato typically runs 4 to 9 percent butterfat versus the 10 percent floor U.S. law sets for ice cream. But gelato is denser, so an identical-looking scoop holds more dessert, and many recipes carry more sugar to stay soft. Portion size decides more than the category does.

Is Talenti actually gelato?

It is sold and labeled as gelato, and no U.S. rule stops that — the International Dairy Foods Association confirmed in 2013 that gelato has no federal standard of identity. Talenti started as a Dallas gelateria in 2003 and was bought by Unilever in 2014. Packaged pints stored near 0 degrees eat colder and firmer than gelato scooped fresh from a shop case.

Is gelato more expensive than ice cream?

Usually, per serving. Low overrun means a shop gets fewer portions out of a gallon of mix, because it is selling dessert rather than whipped-in air. Small batches, faster turnover, and dedicated equipment add cost on top. Grocery-aisle ice cream stays cheapest per ounce, but that is a different product than a scoop made on site.

How much is one serving of gelato?

On a packaged label, one serving of a frozen dessert is two-thirds of a cup. The FDA raised the reference amount for ice cream from half a cup to two-thirds of a cup in its Nutrition Facts label final rule, effective July 26, 2016. Shop portions ignore that number entirely, and a small cup often holds two servings or more.

Does gelato go in the freezer or refrigerator?

The freezer, always. Refrigerator temperatures melt it and ruin the texture permanently. Home freezers are meant to sit at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below, which is colder than a gelato case, so leftover gelato turns hard as a brick. Set it on the counter five to ten minutes before serving and it comes back to something close to right.

Is gelato stronger than ice cream?

In flavor, generally yes. Two things drive it: less butterfat means less fat coating your tongue and dulling aroma, and a warmer serving temperature means your palate is less numbed. That is why fruit and nut flavors read sharper in gelato. It is not stronger in calories or sugar, and it contains no alcohol or caffeine unless a flavor adds them.

What is the most famous custard in St. Louis?

Ted Drewes, and it isn’t close. The family has sold frozen custard here since 1929 by its own count, and the Chippewa Street stand opened in 1941 on a Route 66 alignment, where it opened its 97th season in 2026. Its concrete — handed to you upside down to prove how thick it is — dates to 1959. Plenty of other custard stands operate across the metro.

What is a signature St. Louis dessert?

Gooey butter cake and the frozen custard concrete are the two. Gooey butter cake came out of a south St. Louis German-American bakery in the 1930s, reportedly by accident when a baker got the proportions wrong; the Danzer, Koppe, and St. Louis Pastries families have all been credited, and the origin is still argued about locally.

Which president loved ice cream the most?

Ronald Reagan is the one who put it in writing. He signed Proclamation 5219 on July 9, 1984, naming that July National Ice Cream Month and July 15, 1984 National Ice Cream Day, and the proclamation called ice cream a nutritious and wholesome food enjoyed by over ninety percent of Americans. National Ice Cream Day has been marked on the third Sunday in July ever since.

About the Author: The St Louis Near Me Directory Team
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.

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