7000 Carroll Ave

From a press release:

More than six years after Dolci Gelati first came to DC, Chef Gianluigi Dellaccio and his business partner/wife Anastasia have announced that they will open Dolci Gelati Café, their first storefront, in Takoma Park this spring—a second location will follow next year in the Shaw neighborhood, at the City Market at O. Dolci Gelati can currently be found at Nationals’ Stadium and the National Zoo as well as in restaurants and markets throughout the Washington Metro area such as Whole Foods and Taylor Gourmet.

The first planned location will open its doors in Takoma Park early this spring and is being opened in tandem with fellow Italian and local entrepreneur Marcello Mina. This first shop, just 10 minutes from the Dolci Gelato laboratorio “kitchen”, will be on 7000 Carroll ave., in the heart of the trendy neighborhood.

Dolci Gelati Café will open their second location next spring at the City Market at O development on 8th street between O and P Street. The complex will be erected in Shaw and will also include a renovated state of the art Giant as well as a hotel, apartment complex and other retail and restaurants.

Chef Gianluigi currently has created more than 300 varieties of homemade gelato, and will bring his crowd-pleasing favorites such as salted caramel, white chocolate raspberry and bacio to the store daily. The Chef will also experiment with fresh, new flavors including creating a health-conscious line with tantalizing treats like Green Tea, Pomegranate Powerberry and a Super Citrus Antioxidant sorbet. Dolci Gelati Café will also feature a Social Good flavor, from which the profits will go to a variety of great causes.

“For years my creations have been bound by what the markets would order. I have so many new ideas that I want to try both in gelato and pastry and now I have my own place to do so,” said Chef Gianluigi. “I can’t wait to connect with our customers on a new level and offer new varieties that they have only imagined, while staying true to my family’s recipe that I learned growing up in Italy.”

Before creating Dolci Gelati, Chef Gianluigi was a Pastry Chef at Galileo, as well as an Italian Water Polo Champion. The Chef plans to incorporate his background as a pastry chef to develop many new items. The menu will include “cupcake cones”- ice cream cones filled with cupcake and chocolate ganache center, gelato sundaes, pastry and several varieties of praline nuts and artisan kettle corn (chocolate covered, cotton candy, bacon, and parmesan).

Dolci Gelati was started in 2005 by Former Italian champion water polo player turned pastry chef Gianluigi Dellaccio. Dolci Gelati offers many great varieties of gelato with a consistent level of quality that can only be achieved with artisan precision. The process starts every morning with deliveries from local dairy farms and other handpicked fruits, fine chocolates and other fresh ingredients. Gelato offers the same great taste as ice cream with 1/3 the fat and none of the artificial ingredients. Gianluigi uses a 100% authentic Italian recipe and local fresh ingredients to bring you a little bit of Italy across the Atlantic.

City Market at O

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Thanks to a reader for sending the Takoma Park Police’s press release:

At approximately 1:42 a.m., Takoma Park Police received a call for shots fired in the area of Flower Avenue. Shortly after, they received another call for the report of two white males lying in a driveway in the 7300 block of Flower Avenue. Officers responded out and confirmed both males deceased suffering from gunshot wounds. They were located in one of the deceased person’s driveway located in the 7300 block of Flower Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland. At this time, investigators do not believe that there were any other individuals involved in the incident. Until the autopsies are completed tomorrow by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, the exact cause and mechanism of death has yet to be determined.

Preliminarily, investigators believe that the two men were friends and were coworkers at a special education school in the District of Columbia. It is premature to determine what circumstances led to or why this shooting occurred. There was no indication of hostility prior to the shooting. All initial information leads to the belief that this was a Homicide/Suicide. We would ask that respect and privacy be given to the families of both men.

The individuals are identified as:

David Draa, 30, of Takoma Park, Maryland; and

Steven Kyle Hickman, 30, of Washington, DC.