Directly across the street from Rosie General, the bakery and deli that the Sasso family has run in Kingston’s Rondout since 2022, sits a white building that has been under construction for the past year. It is about to become Sobrinos, a scratch-made gelato shop adorned in yellow marble and exposed brick.
Anthony Sasso, the Michelin-starred chef who returned to his roots in the Hudson Valley to open Rosie General with his sisters, has spent the past year building out the space with his father and uncle. The shop has always been a family operation: Nicole, an Institute of Culinary Education-trained pastry chef, handles everything pastry, while Andrea and Ashley round out the team. Sobrino is Spanish for nephew, a word that nods to the Spanish culinary tradition Anthony trained in while pointing toward the generation that comes after.
“Rosie’s is named after our mom,” Anthony says. “This is for the kids.”
The Sasso family signed the lease on the Abeel Street space over a year ago. What followed was the particular kind of time that construction swallows whole. Last summer at Rosie was their busiest yet, with the kitchen running at full tilt from May through Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, Anthony’s father and uncle worked steadily across the street, building out the new space in relative quiet.
The space itself is unusual: two square rooms connected by three steps, no walls between them, exposed brick everywhere, an original tile floor left exactly as found. The bathroom had to move, which meant months of plumbing work before anything cosmetic could begin.
The design direction came from an unlikely source: Corrado Assenza, the renowned Sicilian chef who runs Caffè Sicilia in Noto and whose episode of “Chef’s Table: Pastry”(Season 4, Episode 2) left a strong impression on Anthony. Assenza blends traditional Sicilian ingredients like almonds, pistachios, and citrus with techniques refined over generations. “That is who I want to be when I’m 75 years old,” Anthony says. “If I have to build something at this age to get there at that age, then we did it.” Designer Danielle Epstein, who also designed Rosie, was brought on with a clear brief. “I called Danielle and said, ‘We want it to feel like a sister of Rosie, same designer, same elements, but we’re going Sicily. Italian. Yellow,’” Anthony recalls. “She said, ‘You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to design an ice cream shop.'”
The result is warm and unhurried: yellow marble countertops, exposed brick, wood details, green accents, and an original tile floor. There are two booths, six window stools, and plans for seating outside once the weather turns. The kitchen is open.
The Sasso family makes everything from scratch at Rosie, and Sobrinos will be no different. The guiding principle Anthony keeps coming back to is simple: things should come from the ground. Real mint in the mint chocolate chip. Real chocolate. Fruits, vegetables, herbs, good vanilla. No extracts, no artificial flavoring.
Going the gelato route, which skips the egg yolks used in American-style ice cream, produces a softer scoop with a cleaner flavor. “The protein in egg yolks steals flavor from your ingredients,” Anthony explains. The goal is a scoop affordable enough to come back for several times a week, the way families in his neighborhood grew up going to Jolly Cow. “Our mom brought us there six days a week in the summer,” he says. “Go shopping at Adams, then Jolly Cow for ice cream.”
The case holds twelve flavors at a time: nine gelatos and three sorbets, plus two granitas and three sundae options. Vanilla will always be on offer, and Anthony has spent months on the recipe alone. “The hardest flavor to make is just standard vanilla,” he says. An espresso flavor made with Mud Coffee, steeped in milk for days before spinning, is one of the early standouts. “It tastes like you’re drinking cold brew and the milk is the sweetener,” he says. Sorbets will rotate through lemon, grapefruit, and coconut, while granita—pumpkin or grape— rounds out the menu at $8. A single scoop starts at $5, two scoops $8, and milkshakes $9.
Come summer, when local produce is at its peak, the menu will get more adventurous. A toasted baguette gelato is already in testing, built on bread soaking in milk from Rosie. Cucumber and tomato are possibilities. “We’re not ruling out popcorn,” Anthony says.
Sobrino’s draws directly from what Nicole and Anthony have built at Rosie. Nicole’s jams will go into sundaes ($12). Her cookies, which she holds to an exacting standard, will find their way into ice cream dishes and toppings rather than a standalone case. Pie, long requested at Rosie, will live at Sobrino’s as pie a la mode ($14). Anthony is also working on a banana split. “People either love or hate bananas,” he says. “I’m going all in.”
For kids, there will be rainbow sprinkles, marshmallows, M&Ms, walnuts, peanuts, and honey. Anthony is particularly enthusiastic about honey, sourcing different varieties because the flavor shifts depending on where it comes from and how long it has aged.
“All we’re doing and what we’re here for is to fill in the gaps of the Rondout,” Anthony says. “There’s so many kids in this neighborhood and so many people we know with young kids. We needed an ice cream shop that’s open year-round.”
The Presidents’ Day bake sale at Rosie on February 16 gave the neighborhood its first look inside Sobrino’s and a taste of the gelato. The space opened for tastings during the event, with a line down the block, letting people see what the Sasso family has been building across the street for the past year, offering a choice of olive oil or mint chocolate chip.
A soft opening is planned for mid-March, with limited hours and a few days a week to start.
“Ice cream’s ice cream,” Anthony says. “It’s going to taste good, it’s going to look good. We’re just going to kill ourselves trying to make the best version of something that seems simple.”
Sobrino’s is located at 5 Abeel Street in Kingston’s Rondout. Follow @sobrinosgelato for updates on the opening.
