[Photos: R. Lopez]

Dolcezza moves its production operations into a sparkling new lab this weekend. Though a grand opening event is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m., the public portion of the facility won’t open for regular touring hours until this spring (at least it’ll be gelato weather by then).

At that point, Dolcezza will have a tasting room and coffee lab to show off to visitors. At the tasting lab, customers will get the chance to sample gelato before it has been tempered for stability, meaning its consistency will be more like soft serve ice cream. The 4,000 square foot space, located at 550 Penn St. NE near Union Market, will be able to host about 20 people at a time within the tasting room, which will have hours from noon to 7 p.m.

The new space allows Dolcezza, which has multiple locations and is also sold by retailers, to increase its production capacity tenfold. Brian Miller of Edit Lab at Streetsense designed the space, which has big skylights, tall garage doors and industrial equipment from the Hershey Chocolate Factory incorporated into the design. Customers will be able to look down on the gelato-making from the mezzanine area. Stumptown Coffee will be featured within the facility’s coffee lab, where they’ll do coffee education and training. The facility is also now available for private events booking.

Originally published here.