Street Food: Filmmakers bring gelato to FedExForum
Memphis-made gelato Zio Matto, from partners Matteo Servente (left) and Ryan Watt on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021, stand with their new cart imported from Italy. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
From the Brothers Gasol to Juan Carlos Navarro to incoming rookie Santi Aldama, the Memphis Grizzlies have a rich history with Spain.
But this season, the team’s international flavor – literally – will get some Italian in the mix.
Zio Matto, a local artisanal gelato company, will be at FedExForum this season, serving scoops of its product from a metallic gold and pastel cart on the arena concourse, just off the grand lobby. And not just for Grizzlies games. You’ll find the Zio Matto cart at Memphis Tigers games and likely most other events at FedExForum in the coming year.
“It’s a chance for us to get our brand out, and get a lot of people to try our gelato who might not otherwise get a chance,” says Ryan Watt.
Roughly a year old, Zio Matto is a co-production of Watt and company founder/gelato maker Matteo Servente, and not for the first time.
In 2013, Servente and Watt were in Italy, Servente’s home country, where as director and producer, respectively, they had been selected to participate in a Venice film development program. While there, Servente took Watt on a gelato hunt, avoiding the tourist traps where Watts says he would have otherwise ended up.
Seven years later, they found themselves sharing gelato again, but this time Servente’s own, at his Memphis home.
“I think it was around August (2020). I came over to his place and we sat outside and he gave me some pistachio and chocolate,” says Watt. “If I walked into a gelato shop in Italy, which I’d done with him a few times before, that’s what I would order. You can’t find that here, in Memphis or even regionally, these true Italian gelato options.”
Servente moved to Memphis roughly 15 years ago because of a filmmaking connection, and partnered with Watt on some indie film projects before Watt became executive director of Indie Memphis, a post he left earlier this year.
“It’s a chance for us to get our brand out, and get a lot of people to try our gelato who might not otherwise get a chance.”
Ryan Watt
Now that filmmaker/producer relationship – where art blends into commerce – has been replicated in frozen form.
“I wondered what I could import to share a part of Italy that I’m really passionate about,” says Servente, originally from Torino. “Gelato became a choice because I found someone in Italy who had a way of making it that wouldn’t require big machines, and would be more traditional and authentic.”
Servente launched the business roughly a year ago, with Midtown Italian restaurant Tamboli’s the first distribution partner for Zio Matto. The moniker derives from a family nickname, bestowed by a then-toddler niece who couldn’t quite say “Matteo.” Matto means “crazy” in Italian, and zio is “uncle.”
Watt came aboard a few months later, after he’d announced his intention to leave Indie Memphis, a departure connected to a looming move to Nashville due to his wife’s job.
“My background is more entrepreneurial and marketing, and that’s kind of what I tried to bring to Indie Memphis,” says Watt. “(Zio Matto) is something that keeps me connected to Memphis. But now that I’ve moved (to Nashville), I could potentially expand it if all goes well.”
Servente makes the gelato, multiple batches a week, with Watt coming back on weekends to help and work on business development.
While he uses a couple of large kitchen mixers, most of the work is done by hand, in the manner Servente was taught by the Italian gelato maker.
“Ninety percent of the work is right here,” says Servente, patting his arm.
“Gelato has less fat and less air (than ice cream), so it becomes more dense and packs more flavor. The texture is a little softer and silkier,” says Servente.
Coffee gelato from Zio Matto, in the single-serving containers sold at farmers markets and local grocers. (Zio Matto Gelato)
Zio Matto currently produces six flavors: Stracciatella, chocolate, pistachio, hazelnut, coffee and mango. It’s sold, in single-serving containers, each Saturday at the Downtown and Cooper-Young farmers markets and is also available at roughly a dozen local Italian restaurants and independent grocers.
The stracciatella, Italian sweet cream with chocolate chips, is the most popular flavor. The mango is the only one that isn’t highly traditional.
“Mango is not the obvious fruit, it’s the fruit that became obvious because of how good the recipe was,” says Servente.
At FedExForum, Zio Matto will stick to three flavors: Stracciatella, chocolate and a rotating flavor of the game.
The striking cart they’ll use there was imported from Italy and made specifically for gelato. It’s not an ice cream cart in disguise.
“We couldn’t find anything of this kind in the U.S.,” says Servente. “It’s got a cooling system that keeps it at the right temperature even unplugged for 8 hours. There’s an allure to these carts that I couldn’t find in some of the other options here, and we wanted something that would represent our brand.”
“Getting the right temperature is super important,” says Watt. “If it’s a couple of degrees off it’s too hard or too soft, and this (cart) is really precise.”
The right temperature for gelato is 3-6 degrees, according to Servente, and that temperature control will be one of two things the FedExForum cart will allow that Zio Matto can’t currently do via the take-home containers it sells at markets and restaurants.
The take-home gelato found at markets is kept colder, but at FedExForum, the temperature will be geared to instant consumption.
“We can finally scoop gelato,” says Watt. “Matteo’s original plan wouldn’t have been that things are pre-packaged. Now we can give the real experience to customers.”
Another part of that real experience will be the option to mix flavors. Each serving will be two scoops. Customers can get two of the same flavor or combine different flavors in the same cup.
Servente says Zio Matto is looking to expand flavors in the near future, with vegan and seasonal flavors under consideration, but isn’t ready to commit to anything specific.
“We’re really happy with all six flavors,” says Watt. “Until we feel great about something we’re not putting it out.
For more info, see ziomatto.com or ziomattogelato on Instagram.
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Street Food Zio Matto FedExForum Ryan Watt Matteo ServenteChris Herrington on demand
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Chris Herrington
Chris Herrington has covered the Memphis Grizzlies, in one way or another, since the franchise’s second season in Memphis, while also writing about music, movies, food and civic life. As far as he knows, he’s the only member of the Professional Basketball Writers Association who is also a member of a film critics group and has also voted in national music critic polls for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice (RIP). He and his wife have two kids and, for reasons that sometimes elude him, three dogs.
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