Named after David Bowie’s final masterpiece, Black Star gelato combines chestnut ice-cream with dark chocolate ganache and a finish of cream flavoured with the smoke of a Cuban cigar. It is the creation of young Italian chef – and Bowie superfan – Angelika Kaswalder, and sold in her ice-cream parlour Cuore di Vetro on Max-Beer-Strasse in Berlin’s Mitte district. A scoop costs €1.60, a small price for conceptual art in a cone.
Kaswalder considers herself an artisan. Her gelato range is made fresh each day depending on what fruit and other ingredients are in season. She can be seen at work through the glass wall of the kitchen, or “laboratory” as she calls it. Co-owner Guido Dorigo, who has the finest goth hairdo this side of 1985, is out front on scooping duty.
The parlour is famed for its pistachio flavour, last year voted the best ice-cream in the German capital. Those wishing to pay homage to Bowie (in the city where he made some of his greatest music) but who don’t fancy the taste of cigar smoke might prefer White Duke – Sicilian almond topped with organic peach jam. Also available is mint chocolate 8½, named for Federico Fellini’s 1963 film, but with a cheeky nod to After Eights.
Cuore di Vetro, which puts on live music and art shows in an upstairs room, is a favourite hang-out for Berlin’s musicians, including confrontational industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten. They may seem unlikely ice-cream devotees, but apparently after a hard day bashing out rhythms on instruments made from scrap metal, a scoop of vegan chocolate eis is just the thing.
