Exploring FRÍO Gelato: Chicago’s Authentic Argentine Gelato Experience

Aaron Masliansky (00:02)
Welcome to the Chicagoland Guide and I'm your host, Aaron Masliansky. Today, I am so excited to meet and talk with Karla Tennies Koziura who is one of the owners of FRÍO Gelato. FRÍO Gelato, if you don't know it, you should know it. It is the most delicious Argentinian gelato spot. I know it from the location in Evanston and now in Wilmette and also Navy Pier.

Karla Tennies Koziura (00:08)
You

Aaron Masliansky (00:31)
So it is so good. They're growing. And I think it's just one of the great reasons why these communities are great. have these great, delicious eateries that are around. So I'm so excited, Karla to speak with you. Thank you for joining me.

Karla Tennies Koziura (00:47)
Thanks for having me, Aaron I appreciate being you here.

Aaron Masliansky (00:50)
Yeah, it's great. you you, your family, mean, you have a unique story of how this all started. I mean, what's the origins of FRÍO Gelato? Were you guys always in the gelato business?

Karla Tennies Koziura (01:04)
We actually were not in the gelato business. So the learning curve initially was quite steep. We have been in other businesses locally here in Evanston, mainly in real estate and construction. But in 2012, my husband, Sebastian, who is from Argentina and his cousin Enrique, who's also from Argentina, we're kind of hanging around talking and saying, my gosh, we really miss our frozen dessert treat that we love.

from our home country and we can't seem to find the same flavors and the same texture and the same product here. Gosh, we should just make up our own company and we're like, my gosh, we should. So it really was born out of a lack, for a better word, a lack of what they felt was missing, but also just they come from a family with a true and deep entrepreneurial spirit.

And they were kind of like, let's just try this as a new business idea. Why not? Maybe other people will like Argentine gelato as well.

Aaron Masliansky (02:07)
Well, that's amazing because you see so many businesses that start and they're not successful. But you guys have been around for how long now?

Karla Tennies Koziura (02:14)
Since 2013, we first opened our doors in Evanston. That's where we started, yes.

Aaron Masliansky (02:20)
Well, it's a great testament to how delicious it is. what is different about Argentine gelato as opposed to ice cream or other types of gelato, Italian gelato?

Karla Tennies Koziura (02:31)
Well, first of all, let's talk a little bit about Argentina, history of Argentina, right? Argentina was a melting pot exactly like the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. So you had a lot of people emigrating, leaving Europe and coming to America. In fact, there is a story in my husband's family where one of his relatives got on a boat thinking he was headed to North America, New York, and ended up in Argentina.

So we did have a large influence in Argentina of people primarily from Italy, from Spain, Germany, Eastern Europe as well. In fact, today's population of Argentina is about 62 % of Italian descent. So that means that the Italian immigrants who went to Argentina took with them all of their gelato making traditions. So in Argentina, you can see a gelateria or eladeria, however you want to call it.

almost on every street corner and it's a huge part of the Argentinian tradition. So I felt like I needed to say that first to set the groundwork of why Argentine gelato, why is that so popular? So it is in fact so popular that in Argentina it's very common for you to order gelato to be delivered to your home on a motorcycle, very similar to like a pizza.

Aaron Masliansky (03:44)
Right.

Karla Tennies Koziura (03:56)
It's nut as common to buy ice cream or gelato in a supermarket because it's so readily available. And it's part of the tradition to just go to the local gelato store or to have it delivered. So having said that, yeah, we basically took the recipes from the Italians. And then in Argentina, there's new and different flavors, new and different fruits, new and different types of raw materials.

We know that in Argentina, there's a huge cattle industry, a huge dairy industry, and that milk was very, very rich. And we were able to use that for the Argentine gelato tradition. In fact, dulce de leche, which is milk caramel, was invented in Argentina. The story goes, the folklore goes, that there was a woman who was cooking milk and sugar and it kind of burnt or it got

passed what she wanted it to do and it ended up being milk caramel. so milk caramel comes from Argentina and you will see that it's prolific in all of our flavors.

Aaron Masliansky (05:04)
Yeah, it's a delicious mistake. Yeah, that's for sure. And one thing too, like you talk about Argentina being a melting pot, my great grandfather actually came to America first via Argentina. They're originally from Belarus. yeah, so it's a small world. I guess so mixed in.

Karla Tennies Koziura (05:06)
It's a delicious mistake. Exactly. Right.

goodness. That's great. You have those roots then as well. Yes. Yes. I'm yeah, that's great. I don't have the gelato. I'm actually not from Argentina. My family was from Ecuador and the United States, but I feel Argentinian having been married into the family for 24 years and being part of the growth of FRÍO Gelato.

Aaron Masliansky (05:34)
I don't have the gelato chops

Yeah, for sure you are. And you guys have opened locations in Evanston, Navy Pier, and Wilmette. So, I can think of why these are great locations, but tell our listener here, why would you pick those spots to start up your stores?

Karla Tennies Koziura (06:10)
Well, first of all, Evanston was a no brainer because we live in Evanston. We've set up our roots here and Evanston is also a community that really promotes local businesses, wants to support the small business owner. If you think about it, small businesses are the backbone of a community. It's what makes Evanston or any other community very, very unique. We don't have a ton of big chains here.

And we have the residents who really want to support the local business because it really does put a different stamp and a different personality on Evanston or Wilmette, let's In addition, these communities do have a population that likes different and unique experiences and tastes. People who've maybe traveled or who would like to travel or in Evanston, we have Northwestern University that gives a great influence of people from all over the world. So you do see.

a mix of different types of restaurants, Ethiopian, Japanese, Chinese. We have a lot of Latin American type influence restaurants. So a place like FRÍO Gelato is like a perfect fit for the community. Now, Navy Pier is a little bit different. Navy Pier, you have people coming from all over the world to visit Chicago. So we thought, wow, we have a "Chicago" based brand that we can promote at Navy Pier.

The audience is different though, because they're not the loyal customers who are going to be repeat business. They might just be here for a weekend or a week on vacation. And Navy Pier is a great location to kind of just celebrate the differences, celebrate international flavors, international people who are visiting Chicago, and then also promoting a business that is born in Chicago.

Aaron Masliansky (08:04)
for sure. And I love your Evanston location. It's just being next to Blind Faith Cafe, one of my favorite restaurants. You're in the Main Dempster Mile, which I know you have a big part in the business community there. But Navy Pier, that I would say is the number one tourist spot for all of Chicago. Now, Wilmette's a new location for you. And I was there for your grand opening. It was really fantastic. You had Argentine dancers. had

Karla Tennies Koziura (08:10)
Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Aaron Masliansky (08:34)
ribbon cutting. mean, you had to line up the door. There was music playing outside. It was just really like a home run for what you think of a small community, small town, downtown. Is that what you envisioned when you guys first opened up there?

Karla Tennies Koziura (08:37)
Yes.

Well, thank you very much for saying that because one never knows what to expect in a grand opening. I think the live tango dancers was a real plus. Tango, of course, is from Argentina. So we wanted to share a little bit about more about the culture, not only in the gelato, but to bring in the dancers. And Wilmette is really a bustling, booming downtown. They've done a great job in supporting the local restaurants there, creating a fantastic vibe.

It's a place that is a destination, not just for people from Wilmette, but from the North shore. So I did kind of expect that we would have a success, but of course we also worked in conjunction with the Wilmette Kenilworth Chamber of Commerce, who was very, very supportive in helping us promote the business. That's what it's for. It's there to help all the local businesses. And we hope to be able to tie into a lot of their other activities as well there in Wilmette.

Aaron Masliansky (09:49)
I think it's great because I think back 10 years or so ago in Wilmette, it was kind of sleepy. You've had such a resurgence there with the restaurants. You have new apartment buildings that have been built a couple of blocks away from you. You have the park across the street, and then you have a coffee shop next door. I feel like it's not just that you have a new business there, but you're enhancing the community.

Karla Tennies Koziura (10:05)
Yes.

Right.

Aaron Masliansky (10:16)
I could totally see you guys being involved with so many of the different events that they're going to have there and you're close to the train station too.

Karla Tennies Koziura (10:22)
Yes, for sure. I mean, I think it's mutually beneficial, right? I mean, when you open a gelato store, you want to make sure it's in the right location. We all know in life and in real estate and in business, location, location, location, that is a very important factor. And I think we did kind of hit a home run there and we'll match. And hopefully the community will continue to support us.

Aaron Masliansky (10:45)
I think they definitely will. I hope that you have enough staff to be able to handle all the business there. Part of it is just because the flavors are delicious and you do cater to people. Everything's gluten -free. You're nut allergy -friendly, which I think is that hits home to me. My wife is allergic to

Karla Tennies Koziura (10:48)
Yeah

Yes. Thank you.

Yes.

Aaron Masliansky (11:11)
tree nuts and it's a big deal whenever we go anywhere to make sure that she's not going to get sick. And how do you make sure that that happens? And also thank you for doing that.

Karla Tennies Koziura (11:16)
Yes.

Yeah, well, we wanted to make the gelato, even though it's Argentine in nature, but we wanted it to be universally accepted, right? And so we talk about the three A's in our business. are Argentine, number one. Number two, we're artisanal. We use very high quality, supreme raw materials for our gelato. We use real fruit. We don't use any artificial sweeteners.

In fact, our banana gelato is great because there's no artificial yellow dye in it. Our avocado gelato is made from real avocados and we only make that as a special flavor in the month of May when avocados are plentiful and not as expensive. And the third A is allergen friendly. So we do have a lot of friends with kids who have allergies like you mentioned.

And we just wanted to make sure that this was a place that could be open to everybody. And the way we ensure that our process is allergen friendly from the beginning is we've got controls in place in our kitchen. We source all our materials from places that are allergen friendly as well. And then of course we in the stores,

try to eliminate cross -skin contamination by using different spoons for whatever we're serving, et cetera. So we're always there to please.

Aaron Masliansky (12:44)
Yeah, no, it takes extra work. But I think it's important. You go to some places and there's no attention to that, but you guys do it. And I think that that's a great reason for people to really support you. You're welcome. And you have over 20 flavors. You've got, like you mentioned, Dolce di Leche and all these different ones that you come up with. How do you create these flavors? Are you guys constantly testing them?

Karla Tennies Koziura (12:57)
Thank you.

We kind of are, it's kind of fun in the office, in the kitchen, because we're like, okay, what are you trying today in the kitchen? Let's try it. And then we give the thumbs up, thumbs down. We do do market research though, which means going to Argentina and checking out what are the latest flavors down there, because we do want to keep current with what is going on in Argentina as well. You go down there and you have a whole separate menu just for dulce de leche flavored gelatos. That could be like 10.

Dulce leche with nuts, dulce leche with dulce leche swirl, this, this, this. So, you we can't have that many dulce leches here in the United States, but what we do do is of course we're trying to come out with a new and different flavor of the month, every month. Some of those are on repeat because they are favorites for our customers. But a lot of times it's just like, okay, our kitchen chef and staff kind of just says, I've been thinking about this or I heard of this, let's try that.

For example, for a Northwestern event once they wanted a purple gelato. Well, it needed to be natural. It couldn't be a fake dye. And so we used that purple root. can't think of the name, but we used that as a base and we made the purple gelato for this Northwestern event. And so we're just kind of always moving and grooving in the kitchen.

Aaron Masliansky (14:32)
Is that made in the Evanston location?

Karla Tennies Koziura (14:36)
The gelato, our production kitchen is in Evanston. It's not at the location. It's a different location. We are located on Simpson Street in the middle of Evanston. We have a production kitchen. have our offices here. And from here, we distribute out to all of our stores. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's in a different location than Evanston store, retail store.

Aaron Masliansky (14:52)
OK, that makes sense. I was wondering where you had space for it.

It must be fun to be a tester. For some reason though, I have just loved chocolate, just straight chocolate lately. And it's just so simple, but it's so delicious.

Karla Tennies Koziura (15:03)
Yes.

Yeah, you know, I have to agree. Sometimes those simple flavors are the best and that might be the best marker for comparison to other flavors if you just go back to the basics, the vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. Now for the chocolate, we have a gelato version, which is dairy based, and we also have a sorbet version, which is water based. But when you eat our chocolate sorbet, it almost feels like it's whipped so well and it's very creamy that it almost feels like it's gelato. You almost don't.

Aaron Masliansky (15:38)
Yes.

Karla Tennies Koziura (15:41)
Notice the difference and so we're happy when customers say that because that's our goal, of course

Aaron Masliansky (15:47)
Yeah, no, I do notice how creamy the sorbet is, because I've tried the chocolate sorbet. Yeah. But what are some flavors that we should be looking out for? What plans do you guys have?

Karla Tennies Koziura (15:59)
Well, down the line, I mean, I guess I'm always the tried and true. My favorite flavor is the Sambajon, which is the egg custard and Marsala wine. That is for a more sophisticated palate. Someone might say, you know, has wine in it, has alcohol in it. What does that mean? Am I going to be affected by it? Well, no, because the alcohol is burned off during the pasteurization process, but it does provide like a nice flavor, even though you don't have any effect, which is great.

So the egg custard and Marsala wine, which we call San Bajon. We also have the Malbec wine with berries, which is great because Malbec berries, Malbec grapes, excuse me, come from Argentina. So the Malbec wine from Argentina is used in our gelato and we add berries to it it's perfect. We do like to experiment with a lot of alcoholic flavors. So there's going to be a bourbon key lime pie coming down the line.

We also do a limoncello, which is with vodka and lime and lots of delicious goodness. Of course, you now we're heading into fall. We're probably going to do the pumpkin again because people expect that. Yeah. We also do an apple cider sorbet for the fall. Yeah.

Aaron Masliansky (17:03)
Sounds good.

yeah.

that sounds good. I'll have to try that. Do you ever partner with any of the other local distilleries when you're making some of these?

Karla Tennies Koziura (17:25)
Yes, in fact, for the key lime pie, we do use bourbon from Few Spirits in Evanston. So that's kind of fun just down the street. Yeah.

Aaron Masliansky (17:31)
And that's just down the street. Yeah. that's really cool. So what are some of the future plans of your expansion? Do you think you're going to be in other communities in the area? Or are you going to be retail at some point?

Karla Tennies Koziura (17:45)
Well, so retail, in other words, like mass marketing through the supermarkets and all that, we've already actually tried that and we've, we used to sell through food stuffs. think for us, for our gelato, FRÍO Gelato is more about the experience of going to the local gelateria and sitting there and being kind of immersed. You will notice in our stores, the decoration is very much true to the colors of the Argentinian flag. So we have the light blue.

We've got pops of yellow for the sun in the middle of the flag. Our new Wilmette Stork has stripes, which kind of mimics the Argentinian national soccer team. We're a soccer family. So I think our, and because it's artisanal, we don't put any preservatives or chemicals into our gelato. It's fresh, it's freshly made daily. And so your gelato that you eat in the retail stores

Aaron Masliansky (18:26)
yeah.

Karla Tennies Koziura (18:43)
is probably like a day or two old at max. Yeah. So, you know, I think that's the best experience for our gelato. In terms of expansion, we did have a couple of other stores. I think, you know, the pandemic didn't help and we were able to kind of regroup and close a couple of our stores that we had on Southport and in Andersonville.

Aaron Masliansky (18:47)
that's awesome.

Karla Tennies Koziura (19:10)
And now we're a lot more streamlined and we can be more focused. And I think the key is to be in an area, again, that accepts and loves small businesses and that loves, has an international palette that loves new and different flavors.

Aaron Masliansky (19:26)
Yeah, and that's one of the reasons why Evanston and Wilmette are two great places to live. Yeah. And where can people find you? Online and actually physically.

Karla Tennies Koziura (19:31)
Exactly.

Yes. Yes, online, www .friogelatio .com. has our whole story there. We do do catering and we do bigger orders for parties and things like that. So if anyone had an interest in that, certainly they could go to our website or give us a call. And our locations are at Navy Pier. We're right next to the Shakespeare Theater there on Navy Pier. In Evanston, we're on the...

of Dempster in Chicago, which fun fact, used to be a Baskin Robbins for years. So people who've grown up in Evanston or in this area, nostalgically like that corner because it reminds them of their childhood. And so it's kind of nice to replicate a frozen dessert destination on that same exact corner. Now we're kind of giving it a little bit of a spin with Argentine gelato and not 31 flavors, but it still provides nostalgia.

And then we'll met, we're right smack downtown, right across the street from the Village Hall. and follow us on Instagram. Like we have a very big Instagram following that kind of talks about different promotions and events and things like that. So of course on Instagram.

Aaron Masliansky (20:39)
You know, it's interesting.

We will definitely follow you there. Before we go, one thing is I do remember it being the Baskin Robbins. I think it's also interesting that across the street from there used to be a Starbucks and now it's a coffee shop pour. At night, it turns into a wine bar. I think it just shows you the small business nature of a town like Evanston where that's what survives.

Karla Tennies Koziura (21:03)
Poor.

I agree with you, Aaron. Exactly. Right, exactly. The same thing happened on Central Street in Evanston where there was a Starbucks, but also a local coffee shop and people almost prefer the warmth and the personality and the vibe of the local, which is great for us. We're really fortunate. Yeah.

Aaron Masliansky (21:27)
It's great. It really supports the community. Well, Karla, thank you so much for being here. I invite everybody to follow us on social media as well, on Instagram and YouTube. So we'll have videos there and just some cool videos I took when I was at the shop for the grand opening. So thank you so much for your time and for all that you do in these communities.

Karla Tennies Koziura (21:52)
Thank you, Aaron. I really appreciate this invitation and hope to see everybody at FRÍO Gelato.

Aaron Masliansky (21:59)
Sounds good.

Okay, let's see, I think it's almost all uploaded. Thank you, that was great.

Karla Tennies Koziura (22:09)
That was great. Easy peasy. Was that 45 minutes? okay. Yeah. Got it.

Aaron Masliansky (22:12)
No, about 22. Yeah, that's what I'm aiming for. About 15, 20 minute interviews. My other podcasts that I've done, they were longer, but I don't think it needs to be. think this is great.

Karla Tennies Koziura (22:28)
Yeah.

You too. cool. Are you from here?

wow.

That's exactly what we want people to do.

It was good, I was nut looking at you because I was looking at the camera, but at one point it did like a little pixel thing I could see out of the corner of my eye and then it cleared up. But I think in general it looks really crisp.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Yes, would love that. Okay, Aaron. Thanks. Bye bye.