Crafted with Italian passion

One day, while sitting in Starbucks, Sara had a conversation that would unexpectedly change the direction of her life.

She loved the atmosphere of the café — the music, the idea of sitting with a computer and enjoying a coffee — but she felt the pastries could be better. Still new to The Bahamas and speaking only limited English at the time, she boldly asked a member of staff whether they might be interested in trying something different.

That simple question led to a meeting. Sara prepared a tasting, and the response was immediate. What began with her baking from home grew rapidly. Within the following years, she opened her own bakery, called Italian Dolce, and eventually supplied pastries to all 11 Starbucks locations operating in The Bahamas at the time.

“Dolce” means “sweet” in Italian, and the name quickly became associated with some of Sara’s most popular creations. In particular, her pumpkin roll and sticky buns became well known through Starbucks and helped build recognition for the Italian Dolce brand.

It was Sara’s first major experience of turning something she genuinely loved into a business.

When that chapter came to an end, she knew she still wanted to create something of her own, although she was not immediately sure what that would be.

Her next venture came from seeing another need in the community. Living in The Bahamas, surrounded by water and swimming pools, Sara became increasingly aware of the importance of water safety for young children. She travelled to Florida to become certified as a survival swimming instructor and founded Baby Aquaticus.

The program teaches babies and young children, from approximately six months to four years old, survival skills that can help them respond if they accidentally fall into the water. Sara continues to operate Baby Aquaticus today and teaches during the summer months.

Yet food never really left her.

During a trip back to Italy, Sara found herself eating gelato and thinking about The Bahamas. She began imagining what authentic Italian gelato could become if it were combined with the tropical ingredients and flavors of the islands.

Guava. Tamarind. Soursop. Mango.

It felt like a natural meeting of two cultures she loved.

Rather than simply returning home and experimenting, Sara decided to learn the craft properly. She attended Gelato University in Bologna, Italy, where she trained in the art and science of traditional Italian gelato making.

When it came time to name the new business, Sara chose Italian Dolce Gelato. The decision was intentional.

People in The Bahamas already knew Italian Dolce through her bakery and the pastries she had supplied for years. Sara wanted customers to make that connection and to understand that the same attention to quality she had brought to her breads, pastries, pumpkin rolls and sticky buns would now be brought to gelato.

Italian Dolce became Italian Dolce Gelato, carrying the reputation of the original bakery into a new chapter.

Sara then returned to Nassau and opened her gelateria. For six years, the company operated a successful retail gelato shop in downtown Nassau. The business was beginning to grow and prepare for a second location when the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. Like many hospitality businesses, the store was forced to close.

But Sara did not want the business — or the idea behind it — to disappear. During the pandemic, she changed the model. Instead of focusing primarily on a storefront, she began producing from a commercial kitchen and expanding the wholesale side of Italian Dolce Gelato.

The company was already selling packaged pints in supermarkets, but Sara began developing stronger relationships with restaurants, hotels and other hospitality businesses. What initially began as a response to a crisis gradually became the foundation of the company’s next stage of growth.

In 2026, Sara began looking for a new production space that could support that expansion. The search eventually led to Italian Dolce Gelato’s new home at Lyford Commerce Park, inside Oasis Fresh Store. Since September 2026, the location has operated as both a production facility and a retail shop.

Customers can once again walk in and enjoy freshly made Italian gelato, while the kitchen behind the business continues producing for wholesale customers.

The menu has also brought Sara back to where her food journey began: baking. Alongside gelato, Italian Dolce Gelato now offers freshly made pastries and desserts including Nutella tarts, cheesecakes, rum raisin scones, biscotti and tiramisu. The company is continuing to develop the retail experience with plans for freshly made crêpes, warm brioche served with gelato and waffle cones made from scratch.

For Sara, this return to both gelato and pastry is also a return to the standards she grew up with in Italy.

Quality is central to everything she makes. She is particular about using fresh, high-quality ingredients and choosing them carefully for each product. For recipes such as tiramisu, where eggs are traditionally used raw, she chooses natural organic eggs and pays close attention to sourcing and freshness.

This attention to ingredients reflects something deeply rooted in her Italian upbringing: food should be simple, fresh and made properly. Sara’s goal is not simply to sell a dessert, but to give customers the best experience possible through the quality, flavor and care behind every product.

That philosophy has become one of the defining principles of Italian Dolce Gelato.

At the same time, the wholesale business continues to expand beyond New Providence. Italian Dolce Gelato is now shipping products to the Family Islands, including Abaco and Green Turtle Cay, opening another chapter in the company’s growth.

Looking back, Sara’s career has rarely followed a straight line. It has moved from a home kitchen to Italian Dolce bakery, from teaching babies to survive in the water to studying gelato in Bologna, from opening a downtown gelateria to rebuilding the business through wholesale after a global pandemic.

But there is a common thread through all of it: Sara sees something she believes could be better, learns how to do it properly, and then builds something around it.

Today, she is proud to be growing Italian Dolce Gelato once again — combining the traditions of her Italian upbringing with the flavors, people and culture of the country she has called home since 2008.

And in many ways, the name still tells the whole story. Italian Dolce began with sweets, baking and a love of making people happy through food. Italian Dolce Gelato carries that same identity forward today, with the same commitment to quality, freshness and care.

For Sara, it is still about something very simple: making good food, making it fresh, and creating the kind of experience that makes people happy.