Traditional flavours, distinguished service Nucci’s Gelati approaches 50 years in family hands with pride in product, community Made in Manitoba
By: Aaron Epp Posted: 6:34 PM CDT Thursday, Apr. 10, 2025

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2025 (193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s toward the end of a 75-minute interview when Maria Pepe, co-owner of Nucci’s Gelati in Winnipeg’s Little Italy neighbourhood, shares, unprompted, some advice related to customer service.

“Everybody comes through a door; it’s up to you to keep them,” she says. “It doesn’t matter what business you have. It’s up to you to make them feel that warmth that will make them want to come back.”

The people behind Nucci’s Gelati have always been experts at “that warmth.”

Founded in 1976 by Pepe’s parents, Gino and Rosa Nucci, the Corydon Avenue establishment introduced gelato — a style of ice cream that hails from Italy — to Winnipeg. In 2017, Maria and her husband, Michael Pepe, took over day-to-day operations of the shop and started offering an Italian lunch menu.

Over the past five decades, Nucci’s has become more than just a place to get a frozen treat or delicious pasta dish — it’s a gathering spot.

Customers celebrate all kinds of special occasions at the shop (643 Corydon Ave.). Some have gotten engaged there and stopped by on their wedding day to take photos. Expat Winnipeggers all over the world make a special point of visiting whenever they’re back in the city.

Mabel Garcea has been going to Nucci’s for at least 30 years and visits regularly with her husband, three adult children and grandchildren.

“I like the way we feel with them,” says Garcea, whose seven-year-old granddaughter insists she’s going to work at the shop one day. “It’s homemade and it’s always guaranteed that the taste will be good.”

Frank Occhino, a customer since the shop opened, agrees.

“They are homemade dishes that are always tasty and (Maria) just treats you like a member of her family,” he says. “I feel that if we had more people like them, this city would be better for it.”

Maria is encouraged by that sort of feedback.

“We strive to do our best and the best is what we do,” she says. “That’s my motto — and it’s true.”

Gino and Rosa Nucci were born and raised in Grimaldi, a town in the Calabria region of southern Italy, and immigrated to Winnipeg in 1961.

Gino worked at Old Dutch Foods and Federal Pioneer Electric and Rosa worked in the garment industry before they ventured into businesses of their own.

First, was a variety shop and then a pool hall — both on Corydon Avenue, which was close to the family’s home on Warsaw Avenue.

In the 1970s, Gino travelled to Rome to learn how to make gelati. He returned with a stainless steel gelati machine that took 15 people to carry and founded Nucci’s. While it’s no longer in use, the machine serves as the front counter at the shop to this day.

“It made them proud to establish a venture like this,” Maria says of her parents.

Nucci’s offered just a few options at first — amaretto, chocolate, lemon and pistachio — but slowly started adding more flavours to the menu. Today, the menu features more than 70 varieties, including dairy-free options. It’s made fresh daily using natural ingredients and no cream or artificial flavouring, Maria says.

Customers can purchase it by the bucket in case they want to keep some at home, and it’s also available in numerous restaurants and coffee shops. Chaise Café in Winnipeg, Whitecap Coffee in Winkler and Nautical Coffee in Kenora, Ont., are a few places that serve it.

Nucci’s has a cart in Old Market Square during the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival each summer and is available for weddings and other special events.

The Pepes still use recipes Maria’s parents developed — formulas that produce “gelati of a superlative order,” as former Free Press restaurant critic Marion Warhaft wrote in her Dining Out column in May 1980.

Gino Nucci died in 2011, at which point, the Pepes became more involved in running the business. They worked alongside Rosa until her death in early 2020.

By that point, they’d added a full kitchen and were serving a variety of soups, salads, pastas, meat dishes and paninis Maria and Michael, who hails from southern Italy, developed based on family recipes.

Maria is quick to point out they use ingredients from local Italian grocers like Piazza De Nardi, De Luca’s and Calabria Market, and Nucci’s is just one of the many great Italian restaurants in the city.

Nucci’s is licensed, can accommodate around 30 people in its dining room and also serves coffee and pastries. Take out and catering are also available.

It was always Gino’s hope his children would take over the business and make it their own, Maria says — adding a lunch menu was her way of doing that.

“We were proud because we came up with our own idea: (serving) old-school recipes that we grew up with.”

Rosaria Moretti-Lawrie, an Italian Canadian food historian in Toronto, believes starting a lunch menu was a good move for Nucci’s.

Moretti-Lawrie visited the restaurant often when she lived in Winnipeg from 2012 until 2020. She believes what the Pepes are doing further cements the important place Nucci’s has in the city’s Italian community.

“At the end of the day, it’s these traditional flavours that we as Italian Canadians are used to having around us,” says Moretti-Lawrie, a PhD candidate at York University. “That’s what keeps the community alive.

“Language is one thing, but food is a big connector for communities — especially ethnic communities.”

For Michael, it’s meaningful running Nucci’s with his wife of almost 40 years.

“We love working together and everyone seems so happy when they come in,” he says. “I love the people, I love the atmosphere (and) I love spending time with my wife.”

Summer is the busiest time of year at Nucci’s and the Pepes employ 13 people during peak season. The lunch menu is available each weekday year-round — and Maria encourages people to stop by even before the temperature rises and the patio opens.

“We’re grateful for the business we have,” Maria says. “We’re grateful for the customers we have (and) we’re grateful for our parents and the legacy we’re carrying on.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca