(Photo above Juli and Jeff Labhart, photo provided by Bonta)
Things will be getting a whole lot sweeter in downtown Bend. Bontá – Natural Artisan Gelato will be debuting their new brick and mortar location, at 920 NW Bond, Suite 108 on Friday, April 10. To kick things off, owners Jeff and Juli Labhart, plan to host a fundraiser donating a portion of Friday’s sales to Central Oregon Locavore, who has helped Bontá grow as a company from their early beginnings. In celebration of the grand opening, Bontá will be offering $2 cones all day long.
After a year of travelling the world, Jeff and Juli fell in love with the creamy goodness of gelato and studied under two different gelato masters before creating their own recipes and starting their small batch gelato company in 2011. They began working with local farms, food artisans and producers to create a handmade, all-natural product that was originally sold from a cart at local farmers markets and festivals in and around Bend. Today their gelato is sold in over 75 grocery stores in Oregon and Washington and a variety of restaurants.
Some their more popular flavors include Dulce de Leche with Sea Salt, Vanilla Bourbon Pecan, Peanut Butter with Theo Chocolate Fudge, Salted Chocolate and Tumalo Lavender with Honey. Bontá also offers many seasonal flavors that will rotate through as ingredients come into season such as Oregon Strawberry Rhubarb, Rainshadow Organics Mint Chip, and berry sorbettos.
“The new scoop shop has really been our dream from day one. We started in the farmer’s markets thinking we would open up a retail shop within a year or two, but that never happened. As we were discovered, grocery stores and restaurants starting asking for our gelato and we had to put the scoop shop on the back-burner. Now we are ready to open up something that we think Bend can be proud to call their own,” said Jeff
The new location will be open from 11am to 9pm daily with their signature, locally made, small batch gelato, sundaes, milkshakes, pints and tubs to go. Bontá has also recently finished building a new creamery at 924 SE Wilson, Ste. A, where all the gelato will be made fresh daily. The creamery will also feature a future tasting room where customers can pick up pints and tubs to go.
Bontá’s gelato carts are available for catering parties and events.
www.bontagelato.com
541-728-3433
