About 3 years ago, Eric Emmert and his wife Kelly got the entrepreneurial itch.
He was commuting from Westport to New York, where he traded high-yield bonds. She worked in sales and marketing.
They looked at various options, including a medical supply company. Meh.
Then they found a gelato business. Bingo!
“Everyone loves the ice cream guy,” Eric notes.
Eric and Kelly Emmert, and their gelato.
At the end of 2016, the couple bought Cold Fusion. The Massachusetts-based firm makes and distributes gelato and sorbet — all by hand, using all-natural, locally sourced ingredients. There’s a line of vegan sorbets, and every item is kosher-certified.
The website explains: “The result of all of this love and dedication is a silky, cool, uplifting fusion of flavor.” (Eric’s favorite: salted caramel chunk.)
A Cold Fusion sampling.
“Gelato is healthier than ice cream,” Eric says. “There’s less fat and fewer calories. And the taste lingers more.”
Sure, it’s a great, fun product. But the couple did not sit around smacking their lips. They restructured Cold Fusion, and grew it.
Working with a new distributor, they’re marketing Cold Fusion up and down the East Coast. You can find it here at Mystic Market and Rizzuto’s; it’s also sold at Walrus + Carpenter restaurant in Bridgeport, and other restaurants around Hartford and Providence. There’s a retail store in Newport, Rhode Island.
The factory is in Massachusetts. Eric and Kelly hope to move the facility closer to home. “I’ve looked at half the vacant spaces in town,” he says.
In their 13 years in Westport, raising 2 daughters here, both have sunk roots into the community. Eric has coached basketball and softball, and been an age-group commissioner. Kelly has coached basketball and volleyball, been a Girl Scout leader, and a member of the Westport Young Woman’s League.
The owners donate Cold Fusion products to local functions, like Homes with Hope’s White Party, the Staples High School PTA holiday lunch and Kings Highway Elementary School’s 5th grade moving-up ceremony.
Gelato is now Eric’s full-time business. Kelly continues in her corporate job, but adds her marketing acumen to Cold Fusion.
The Emmerts are so excited for future growth, they can almost taste it.
Something they might not be able to say if they’d bought that medical supply company, instead of this one 3 years ago.
Kelly & Eric are wonderful! And their gelato is out of this world! Cold Fusion on Thames is always a must when in Newport! It would be amazing if they could open a location in their hometown!
I just left Mystic market and had some of this gelato. It is amazing stuff. Looks like this will be a weekly event. The Emmerts are great people. I think they will do very well with this because it is sooooooo good. Best of luck too you…..
Sounds delish…I’m in!
I was one of the people that ran the luncheon for all the staff at SHS. They donated gelato for the entire staff and it was amazing! Thank you to them for their generosity and their amazing dessert (yes- I snuck some too) 😃
My friend and I couldn’t wait to try the gelato…went to Mystic Market and nobody working in there knew what I was talking about…we found two pints in the freezer…was looking forward to a cone or cup but settled on a pint of coconut…still looking for something like that shown in the article…anybody??
Hi Audrey, Thanks for going down to Mystic Market and trying our pints. Sorry for any confusion, but at the current time we don’t have a scoop shop in town and Mystic Market is just selling pints. There are a few local restaurants mentioned in the article that serve our product on the menu. If you are ever in Newport, please stop by our store and try some of the 34 flavors we have and if you go out to Block Island in the summer there are two locations, Mia’s and Aldo’s, that scoop our product all summer. We are working on and hoping to open a shop in town in the near future!