“Created by Giapo, Curated by Cher”

2023-2024

In late 2023 Cher launched a food truck selling gelato. Here is the website https://www.cherlato.com/. For a while a matching Twitter account was giving the latest location of the truck around Los Angeles. However, the latest news on the truck was posted on the website when the Cherlatos were for sale at West Hollywood’s Abbey nightclub for the month of July in 2024. The fate of the truck is now unknown.

Cherlato Chefs: Auckland, New Zealand’s gelato-genius Gianpaolo “Giapo” Grazioli and Annarosa Petrucci
Cher calls him the “Michelangelo of gelato.”

My friends in L.A., Julie and Dave, visited the truck in 2023 soon after it launched while it was parked outside of Canters Deli. Here is their review and photos.

They also captured the menu:

They snared me the Cherlato cap. I went to the site’s Merch link (cher.store) but that’s down. Then I went to Cher.com and even that site isn’t coming up.

My friend Julie got the Chocolate XO Cher – 72% onyx  dark chocolate gelato topped with coco nibs and freeze-dried raspberries which Forbes also featured in their write-up showing the $18 gold cone:

Raechal Shewfelt at Yahoo! gave some good reviews. She says the chef “purports to rely on “seasonal ingredients.” She calls this flavor Cher’s favorite, according to what Giapo at the press tasting with “20 reporters and influencers.” She says the “standout feature of this one was the crunchy chocolate nibs sprinkled over the gelato. It gave a great brunch and kept it from being too one note.”

Dave got the Breakfast At Cher’s Coffee & Donuts, which Forbes also featured in their write-up:

Raechal Shewfelt (Yahoo!) picks this as her second favorite and says it’s “served really cute” a “deep coffee-flavored” gelato. Which means this will probably be my favorite one. Although I hate coffee, I do love coffee-flavored desserts.) Shewfelt says the doughnut is “about halfway in between a cake doughnut and a Krispy Kreme…ok on its own, but with the gelato, yum!”

Forbes also featured the L.A. I Love You Flavor (vegan) with Arnett Farms’ pluots and Malibu Mylk (optional topping of cotton candy and flower petals) .

Raechal Shewfelt (Yahoo!) calls this one “beautifully decorated” and as the vegan option, comments that “it wasn’t an afterthought.” That’s nice. “Your eyes devour it before you take a bite.” She says, “the cloud is both optional and edible” and calls the gelato flavor lemony and tart.

And I think this might be the Cher’s Mom’s Cheesecake flavor which I think goes with this photo:

There was also SoCal’s Coldest Avocado on Toast – Kimball avocados with Bill’s Bees’ avocado blossom honey (optional topping of breadcrumbs and matcha):

Raechal Shewfelt (Yahoo!) notes this is “one of L.A.’s popular brunch dishes (ABQ, too). She says that like the chocolate flavor, the “avocado needed a contrasting element” which was the breadcrumbs. This reminded her of olive oil ice cream which she likes.

Stracciatella Giapo’s Way – Mexican vanilla beans with chopped dark chocolate:

Raechal Shewfelt (Yahoo!) picks this flavor as her favorite. She calls it “creamy and rich…with a generous portion of serious chocolate dripped on top.”

And not included on this menu above but listed in reviews:

Snap out of it! Kefir & Cardamom – Organic kefir and cardamomand I think it goes with this photo:

Raechal Shewfelt (Yahoo!) maybe explains why because the flavors here were fresh but “didn’t leave her wanting more.” But that maybe this was a good choice for those wanting something lighter than the Stracciatella Giapo’s Way.

Later there seemed to be a more limited menu with different flavors (as now noted on the website):

Cher’s Background

“I’ve had ice cream all over the world. There are pictures of me eating ice cream all over the world, but when I went to New Zealand and I tasted Giapo’s, I just thought, ‘Whoa, this is something different. This is really something different.’ When I walked into his ice cream parlor and I saw gold cones in a big, glass-like apothecary bottle, I forgot about the ice cream and just went to the cones.” (Forbes)

“… it’s just an extension because of my insane love for ice cream, since I was a little kid and the Good Humor man came up our street. Of course, it cost 15 cents – it was amazing. I just like ice cream. I don’t know – you either like ice cream or you don’t. It’s one of my favorite desserts….She went on to share with me that her taste in ice cream really has not changed over time, with some of her favorite flavors being chocolate, chocolate chip and pistachio….[she] also prides herself on the fact that Cherlato’s “Breakfast at Cher’s Coffee & Donuts” menu option was her idea.” (Forbes)

“I don’t know anything about business. I just don’t, but I wanted to do ice cream. I wanted to have an ice cream company, and I love it! Who knows what’s going to happen? It was a labor of love and I wanted to do it, and I did it.” (Forbes)

Cher says she had been working on the gelato for five years and wanted to make “gelato that gets you out of bed at midnight.” (Yahoo!)

Press

2025

In October of 2025, the truck resurfaced again! In New York City! Repainted to match the installation! With Cher in tow talking about how her brand might end up in stores!

The Cherlato truck showed up in Manhattan as part of a new art installation in the courtyard of the West Chelsea hotel Faena New York. The installation transformed the courtyard into a free “retro” roller-skating rink and a Friday night roller disco party. People could roller skate on top of the art piece.

The truck was scheduled to be at that location all weekend.