Matteo Garnero e Enrico Ponza

Gelateria Fioca

Vvia 3 Martiri, 15
12020 Melle (Cuneo)
+393487518240

Enrico Ponza arrived in Torino from the province of Cuneo and its mountain valleys, where he spent his childhood before leaving first for his studies, then for his early career. He specialised in food technologies and started to focus on beer production in the first big craft breweries in town (Soralamà and Piazza dei Mestieri).

The choice of Torino seemed to be the right one to guarantee a future career. But after some experience, the mountains and their landscapes convinced him to return, and go to Melle. There, with Fabio Ferrua, he created something that could give a strong sign that mountains are alive. So in 2012 he started making beer, using his already-acquired experience. Officina Antagonisti was thus born, a brewery-pub. It worked successfully and soon became a meeting point for locals. It grew slowly, offering job opportunities not only to its two founders, but also to 12 young people from the area. They now make over 45'000 litres of beer per year, which they sell between Melle and some other carefully selected locations, only in Piedmont.

In 2015 Ponza decided to add to the brewery a gelateria too, also in Melle. He did so with Juri Chiotti, chef at Reis in Frassino, and Matteo Garnero. Together they started to research how to make gelato, how to run a new place and get new ideas so that another part of the village could remain alive. After some training, and helped by the advice of Chiotti, they opened Fioca. Their idea: local flavours and recipes that preserve the aromas of the mountains. And it's Garnero himself who runs the production process.

Fioca in time became a bar too, open all year round, six days a week: «We decided not to run just a gelateria, but an establishment that would offer a service to the people of the valley». In 2019 the Ostello antagonistawas also born, offering hospitality to skiers and hikers.

by

Luca Milanetto

he believes a day is a good one only when he discovers a new restaurant serving fine food. A gourmet by passion, an inhabitant of the combative Valle Susa, in the time that is left he takes care of welfare policies and social innovation