Students walking down Broxton Avenue can stop to see colorful gelato ice pops covered with chocolate and nuts through the window of a food truck. The truck bears the slogan, “From Italy with Love.”
Stickhouse, an Italian company serving creamy gelato and fruity sorbets on popsicle sticks, drives through Westwood Village three days a week. Its flagship store is in Santa Monica, but the truck has visited Westwood for the past month on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Broxton Avenue or Westwood Boulevard.
Stickhouse owner Vincenzo Sottile’s family has made gelato in Turin, Italy for 40 years.
In 2006, Sottile invented the machine called “La Ghiacciola”, or “the icicle”, that crystallizes gelato, so it can be served on a stick. He opened his first store in 2008 and expanded the business into an international chain of gelato popsicle stores. Sottile began operating the company’s first Los Angeles food truck in February.
[Related: Weekly food truck festival adds flavor to Westwood]
Stickhouse’s chief operating officer, Desiree Samento, said the food truck comes to Westwood because it is a heavily trafficked area.
“The days we weren’t (in Westwood) people would call us … (asking us) to come back,” Samento said. “It’s definitely my favorite spot so far.”
Samento said she estimates about 90 percent of the truck’s Village customers are UCLA students.
Andrew Thomas, executive director of the Westwood Village Improvement Association, said he does not support food trucks coming into the Village because they take away business from stores that pay rent.
“I want the Westwood community to frequent the brick and mortar businesses,” Thomas said. “I’d rather have the community support the businesses here and now than the transitory that doesn’t pay taxes and doesn’t contribute to our district.”
City officials closed a food truck lot that opened on Gayley and Le Conte avenues in July 2014 because the food trucks did not comply with city codes. Some officials said they thought the food truck lot hurt local businesses.
[Related: Food truck under fire from city officials]
Customers, however, said they enjoyed the food truck’s gelato.
Christy Moosavi, a Stickhouse customer, said she liked the truck’s vegan and lactose-free gelato options.
“I think the truck (moving into the Village) is great,” Moosavi said.
Lourick Bustamante, a first-year psychobiology student, said she likes gelato and was interested in the truck, but does not have time to walk to the Village.
Amy Thein, a third-year human biology and society student, said she thinks the truck is appealing but was concerned about its impact on Village stores.
“I was thinking how well it’d do compared to the (Village’s) actual stores,” Thein said. “You don’t see many trucks, but it may drive away customers from the stores.”