Via Gelato
8340 Portage RoadWe’re all about dessert. Ice cream. Custard. Gelato. Fro-Yo. It doesn’t matter. Give us a frozen dairy treat and everyone in our household is happy.
We went to Latitude 42 a few weeks ago and planned on going out for gelato afterwards. There’s a new cafe that opened up not too far from Latitude 42 on Portage Road, but their Sunday hours don’t have them opening until 4:00.
Sunday was a lazy day at our house. We were at a wedding in South Haven on Saturday night so Sunday was trying to squeeze our weekend activities in to one day. We went to Penn Station for a late lunch with my mom before she left town so we weren’t really hungry around our typical dinner time. J suggested we take a little trip to Portage for gelato and just make that our dinner.
Via Gelato has been open about a month on Portage Road right next to Erbelli’s Pizzeria & Italian Bistro about halfway between Centre Street and West Lake. The building shares a parking lot with Erbelli’s and sits quite a ways off the road. The previous tenant of the building was the Academy of Dance Arts.
There was clearly some work done to transform this building from a dance studio to a cafe. A patio was added to the front of the building and a remodel inside that includes a large seating area surrounded by a color scheme of soft pastel colors, bright wood laminate flooring, and dark wood tables and chairs accented by bright seat cushions.
The center stage of Via Gelato is the home made gelato prominently displayed in a large glass display case.
Cant’ decide which one looks best? They give you three chances to try something before having to make a decision.
My eyes went straight to the back of the case where the pan of Peanut Butter Cup gelato sat. I got asked for a large cup which they overfill and top of with a thin sugar cone wafer. The creamy, rich gelato has little pieces of chocolate mixed in creating that peanut butter cup flavor that I love so much.
J also got a large cup of gelato, but she split hers between two different flavors. Half of her cup was Salted Caramel while the other half was S’mores. The Salted Caramel had a spot on flavor of a salted caramel that isn’t wrapped in dark chocolate. The S’mores was a little more subtle where if you knew what you were eating, you could pick out the flavors.
We didn’t get B his in own instead opting to let him share ours. He kept going back and forth between the two of us with his little spoon taking a little bit each time. I don’t think he had a favorite. Pretty sure he loved them all.
Our bill was a little over $11 for the two large cups. You don’t physically get as much as you would at, say, an ice cream place, but gelato is so much more satisfying. Gelato is so much richer and so much denser that it doesn’t take as much to feel as satisfied as you would ice cream.
Via Gelato is unique to the Kalamazoo area in that they are a shop that focuses on gelato instead of just offering it. They have coffee and a small sandwich menu as well, but this is a place you really go to to get gelato. It’s kind of far from the main business centers of both Kalamazoo and Portage, but maybe their location close to West and Austin Lakes will prove to be strategic. They have an incredible product and one that’s worth a few extra minutes out of your way to get to after dinner.
SW Michigan Dining 
Thank you for coming into our Gelato shop and writing about us. We appreciate your time and sharing info about what we offer. Hope you enjoyed it and hope to see you again!