Cher has long dreamed of creating her own ice cream brand—so it felt like fate when she stumbled upon the apothecary-like gelato shop, Giapo, while on tour in Auckland, New Zealand in 2018. Once the Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy winner sampled the imaginative creations made by ice cream wunderkinds Gianpaolo Grazioli (aka Giapo) and Annarosa Petrucci, not even the pandemic could keep them from collaborating. In July, they finally revealed the long-imagined Cherlato—a gelato truck that’s been on the road in Los Angeles ever since.
The origins of Cherlato go all the way back to the superstar’s childhood, it turns out. “When I was really little, the Good Humor man would come down our street in a white truck,” Cher tells Vogue. When the truck’s music played, Cher would run to announce the arrival to her mom, who would look in her purse for the 15 cents needed. “I would go out and keep getting different things. I just loved ice cream—I loved it then and I love it now.”
That passion for ice cream persisted through her storied career and across the globe. “There are pictures of me eating ice cream all over the world,” she says. But nothing caught her attention and imagination quite like Giapo’s gelato. “I took a bite of it, and I was like, ‘Whoa, jeez, this is amazing!’” Immediately craving more, Cher returned to the shop and found herself dazzled by his unique, artistic approach to ice cream, especially the gold cones. “I just looked at those forever. I wanted them.”
Five years later, Cher is serving her own brand of scoops in those ornate cones, thanks to a natural vision and chemistry between her and Giapo. “A gold cone is very Cher; it’s as fabulous as she,” Giapo says when we met in Los Angeles. Giapo’s ice cream is immersive and experiential, often blurring the line between sculpture art and ice cream, making it a perfect fit for the groundbreaking Cher.
Though delightfully decadent, gold cones aren’t the only showstoppers on the Cherlato menu. The debut lineup offers a balance of Cher’s preferred “regular stuff” like Chocolate XO Cher! and Giapo’s “strange, bizarre concoctions,” like the ‘Snap Out of It! Kefir & Cardamom,’ a reference to the 1987 film Moonstruck, which earned her an Academy Award. It’s appropriately topped with a gold-dusted cloud of cotton candy that leaves eaters with a sheen of gold on their lips, a detail that particularly delights Cher.
While many of the one-of-a-kind Cherlato flavors nod to her illustrious career, the recently added Cher’s Mom’s Cheesecake holds a special place in her heart. “My mom made the best cheesecake in the world,” Cher says. “At Christmas and holidays, she would always make them—she always made two, but I wish she made more. Everybody who came to dinner already knew to go to where Mom’s cheesecake was, cut themselves a slice, and put it in the back of the refrigerator, because it would be gone. We had every kind of delicious pie—pecan and pumpkin and apple—but cheesecake was the big winner.”
The truck can only hold five flavors at a time, so guests can expect them to come and go. “The menu will more than rotate, it will evolve,” says Giapo. “It will evolve with the seasons, with ingredients, with the discovery of new pairings. We will also see where our taste will take us, and the taste of where our customers will take us.” Acknowledging that they’ve never done anything like this before, Cher is extremely open to making sure customers are satisfied. “If something’s not working for people, then we’ve got a million things to put in its place.”
However, the customer response has been nothing but enthusiastic. “People seem to really enjoy it, and I love it,” says Cher. On a warm Sunday in Venice Beach, I arrived at the color-blasted Cherlato truck to hear ABBA’s “Fernando” in Cher’s distinctive contralto blasting from the speakers. A line of guests eagerly awaited a chance to sample Breakfast At Cher’s Coffee & Donuts (her concept) or SoCal’s Coldest Avocado On Toast (Giapo’s), with most opting to have their scoop served in the gold cone, which comes with a white glove. There were many repeat customers, most donning Cher tour merch. “They know everything about her,” says Giapo.
Given the success of the truck, Cher and Giapo are now considering how to extend Cherlato beyond summer. “We’re going to do some pop-ups so that we can keep it in certain spaces,” Cher says. Giapo adds that they want to keep going with the truck, but right now are just enjoying the genuine experience they’re having with customers. “It’s really fun,” Cher says. “I’m happy. Ice cream makes me happy.”
Whatever Cherlato evolves into, incredible gelato will always be at the core of it. “That’s what brought us together: a love of great ice cream,” says Giapo. “I trust her love for the thing I love.”