At 2:59 p.m. on Wednesday, a family ran down Washington Street to get to Ceres’ ordering window, making it right before they closed for the day.
The family ordered Ceres’ gelato of the week: a pumpkin hazelnut swirl topped with spooky decorations.
Pretty much everyone sitting in Ceres’ courtyard that afternoon had a cup or cone of the pumpkin-and-hazelnut deliciousness.
The week before Halloween, Ceres created a pumpkin-and-hazelnut gelato swirl topped with spooky sprinkles.
Known for their homemade pasta, Ceres and its sister restaurant Noodies have also created a following for their gelato, with past flavors such as cherry cola, matcha, rose water and Lucky Charms.
Gelato at Ceres and Noodies is like an exclusive drop: you have one week to try it before it disappears. People anxiously refresh Instagram on Tuesdays to see what the weekly flavor is, then they have five days to try the icy treat. Ceres is located at 77 W. Washington St.; Noodies is at 1730 E. Speedway.
It’s hard to imagine that once upon a time, gelato wasn’t even on Ceres’ radar. Carolyn O’Connor, the owner of the two restaurants, said a former employee was interested in making ice cream, which led them to get a small-batch freezing machine.
Making both pasta and ice cream from scratch was proving to be a bit difficult. They even had to keep the machine running all day to try to keep up with the demand from customers. Once the employee left, O’Connor said they had to evaluate whether it was worth the hassle.
It was then when an idea was born.
“I pretty much got this vision; we have to do soft-serve gelato,” O’Connor said. “It was just kind of like this spidey sense.”
The gelato flavors at Ceres rotate weekly. Pictured is chocolate and mint swirl with crushed Thin Mints and gummy worms.
Unlike ice cream, soft-serve gelato doesn’t have to be churned ahead of time. You just have to make the base, then pour it into the machine and it freezes, which is a lot easier than churning everything, putting it in pints and having to scoop it out, O’Connor said.
Some of the first flavors at Ceres were grapefruit honey sorbet, an apricot-and-vanilla swirl, classic vanilla and chocolate.
Over the years, the flavors at both Ceres and Noodies have become more creative than the last. Since Noodies attracts students and families, O’Connor said they tend to pick more decadent flavors like birthday cake, salted caramel corn or a watermelon-and-lime swirl topped with chamoy.
Since Ceres draws an older crowd that is more open to trying different things, the restaurant tends to use more wild flavors such as lime and pineapple jalapeño, lavender and honey, and matcha with a black sesame swirl.
Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star The week before Halloween, Noodies made a vanilla bean gelato swirled with tangerine and topped with spooky candies.
With hardly any repeat flavors, O’Connor said it’s a “team effort” when it comes to inventing the creative flavor combinations. They even have a shared notes page where they can jot down any ideas they have.
“Everyone in the shop contributes to both the pasta specials and gelato ideas,” O’Connor said. “So it's pretty collaborative. Sometimes one thing will lead to the next. It's like, we had never done a soda flavor and then you think of one flavor like a cherry cola and then you're like, but what about just the classic root beer float? What about Fanta and vanilla? One idea often leads to a million others.”
Tuesdays are prep days, which means they get to taste all the flavors and sauces for the week. Everyone comes in and provides feedback, adjusting the flavors that might need some tweaking. The next day, the flavor of the week is available for all Tucsonans to enjoy.
“I feel like especially the Ceres customers have so much trust. They're just like, yeah, I'm going to try it, even if it's like they’ve never had,” O’Connor said.
The week before Halloween, Noodies made a vanilla bean gelato swirled with tangerine and topped with spooky candies.
From inventive flavors to various toppings and drizzles, O’Connor said they try to be flexible with their ideas — just because something doesn’t sound good to one person doesn’t mean it's not appealing to others.
“I try not to be a stickler about what is the right way to do things. I think it's so fun to experiment with things,” O’Connor said. “I think that's why we always just keep trying wild stuff.”
Thanks to O’Connor and her team, both Ceres and Noodies will continue to make gelato so good that it makes people run to grab a cone.
Noodies is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Ceres is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. Gelato flavors change weekly.
