Lifestyles

When you're a Bloomfield shop owner who makes the store's gelatos and sorbets, putting Spaghetti Ice Cream on the menu seems like a natural extension.

"Bloomfield is Pittsburgh's Little Italy," explains owner Dana Acton, a Shaler resident who bought Grasso Roberto in October. The five-year-old casual eating spot puts an Italian accent on its sandwiches, salads, soups and desserts.

Spaghetti Ice Cream ($4.25), an eye-fooling, appetite-pleasing frozen dessert that masquerades as an entree, is its most unusual offering.

Long strands of vanilla gelato emerge from a small German implement similar to a potato ricer or spaetzle maker and curl into a dish. They're covered with a big spoonful of bright red sauce of pureed strawberries, not tomatoes, then dusted with a quick grating of white chocolate that serves as a stand-in for parmesan cheese. Tiny meatball-shaped and chewy chocolate brownies complete the illusion.

Acton doesn't take credit for inventing the dish. She found it and the implement she needed to make it on the Web site for The Spaghetti Ice Cream Company, which is based in Fort Worth.

Although Acton believes Grasso Roberto is the only store in the area selling Spaghetti Ice Cream, the dish reportedly is widely available in Europe and very popular in Germany.

While Spaghetti Ice Cream might be the signature dish at Grasso Roberto, other offerings should not be overlooked.

The menu of store-made gelato flavors changes with the seasons and whims of the owner. Recent gelato selections included Mandarin Coconut, Pistachio, Butter Pecan, Lemon and Jelly Bean. Dishes of gelato are sold in three sizes that range in price from $2.25 to $3.75.

Homemade Italian Ices ($1.75 or $2.50) are available in fruity flavors such as Cherry, Lemon, Cantaloupe and Pina Colada. Or maybe you'd prefer a Creamsickle Milk Shake ($2.50 or $3.25) or the Lemon Berry Ice ($5.95), a scoop of Lemon gelato topped with Chambord liqueur.

Frozen delights aren't the only items available at Grasso Roberto.

The shop serves breakfast items all day such as The Grasso Wrap ($3.25), scrambled eggs and cheese in a flour tortilla wrap, or a stack of Pecan Pancakes ($3.75).

Lunchtime customers can choose from a small but ever-changing selection of soups and salads as well as a mouth-watering list of grilled Panini Sandwiches ($6) made from locally baked focaccia and filled with Italian ingredients such as grilled eggplant, roasted red peppers, ricotta cheese, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella or Gorgonzola.

Customers are welcome to bring their own wine and beer to enjoy with their orders, either inside the store or on the patio behind the building.

Ever the innovator, Acton is working on some new projects and products she hopes to introduce in coming months.

Plans for a July wine-tasting event with a seven-course menu of appetizers are in the early stages -- no dates or prices have been set.

She's also working on creating Dogalato -- a cold, nondairy gelato-like snack for the many canines who visit her shop with their owners.

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