High school student in the business of gelato

Lauren Glassberg Image
Thursday, August 13, 2015
High school student in the business of gelato
Lauren Glassberg has the scoop!

LOWER EAST SIDE (WABC) -- Harrison Geller is in the business of gelato.

"I had an amazing cup of gelato, and I was like 'I've got to learn how to make this'," Geller said.

Geller learned last summer from an old Italian gelato maker. Now a year later, he has opened up 'Polpo Gelato' on the Lower East Side.

"What we do is make every base by hand," says Geller.

There is no industrial mixer, because Geller is on a budget - you see, he is still in high school. Geller says he never thought he would be using math to make gelato. He is using money he made as a child in acting commercials to fund the business.

There are eight flavors of gelato every day, playing off the word 'polpo', which means octopus in Italian.

Geller certainly knows how to sell - after all, he is a drama student at LaGuardia High School, who also happens to love food.

"I love this - I love drama, too, but this is what really burns for me. I have the gelato bug, you could say," Geller says.

However, Polpo Gelato is only a pop-up - it is set to close on August 30th.

"It's just sad that it opened 5 days ago, and we're already 25 percent done," Geller said.

Then again, he has senior year ahead of him,. And a summer he will not soon forget.

"Not the money, but the people - the fact that the people are really liking it, it gets me really excited," he says.

Geller employs seven of his friends from LaGuardia high school, so he is a very good friend. He says he is not ruling out extending the lease if possible, or opening a gelato shop when he goes to college.

Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.