Vecchia Gelato & Cafe

Vecchia Gelato and Cafe opened at The Preserve in Hoover on November 10, 2025, giving the neighborhood a genuine taste of Italy from a couple who already had deep roots in the local restaurant scene. Owners Brianna and Chef Benard “Bernie” Tamburello are not newcomers to Hoover dining. They also own Vecchia Pizzeria and Mercato, located nearby at The Preserve, which they launched back in 2014. Vecchia Gelato and Cafe took over the space previously occupied by Moss Rock Tacos and Tequila, which the Tamburellos closed in late summer 2025 to make room for their new Italian concept.

The cafe’s tagline, sweet, savory, totally Italian, captures the range of the menu well. This is not a shop that only serves gelato. It offers fresh gelato alongside rich espresso, sparkling spritzes, classic Italian pastries, and authentic street food staples, giving customers reasons to stop by for breakfast, a midday espresso break, or a full dinner built around Italian small plates. The gelato itself comes in three sizes, a small with one flavor for six dollars, a medium with one or two flavors for nine dollars, and a large with one or two flavors for twelve dollars, giving both casual samplers and serious gelato fans options that fit their appetite.

Beyond the gelato counter, the food menu leans heavily into the Tamburello family’s Italian heritage. Sandwiches include the Porchetta Vecchia and the Roman Roast, both priced at sixteen ninety five, along with the more substantial Tuscan Stack at nineteen ninety five. Focaccia flatbreads round out the lighter options, priced between eleven ninety five and fifteen ninety five depending on toppings. For those who want to graze, the cicchetti menu, essentially Italian small plates, includes options like Sicilian arancini for thirteen ninety five and golden mozzarella for twelve ninety five, along with classic Caesar salads for ten ninety five. Sweet lovers can also order authentic Italian pastries by name, including bomboloni, sfogliatella, and maritozzo, three classic treats that are difficult to find prepared authentically anywhere else in the Birmingham area.

Vecchia keeps a long, consistent schedule that makes it easy to work into almost any part of the day. The cafe is open every day of the week, Monday through Sunday, from 8 in the morning until 9 at night, meaning it functions as a breakfast spot, a lunch stop, an afternoon gelato break, and a dinner destination all under one roof. That kind of flexibility has quickly made it one of the more versatile independent food businesses at The Preserve, a development that has grown into one of Hoover’s more popular dining and shopping destinations in recent years.

Because the Tamburellos already had an established, successful restaurant just steps away, opening Vecchia Gelato and Cafe was as much a natural expansion as it was a fresh concept. The family owned nature of the business, combined with a menu built on genuine Italian technique rather than a generic Americanized version of gelato, makes this one of the more distinctive dessert and cafe options in Hoover. For residents craving something more authentic than a supermarket gelato case, Vecchia Gelato and Cafe at The Preserve is worth the visit.

The decision to replace Moss Rock Tacos and Tequila with an Italian concept was a notable shift for the Tamburellos, but it reflects a broader trend among successful local restaurant owners who use lessons learned at one concept to inform the next. Having already built a loyal following with Vecchia Pizzeria and Mercato, the couple was able to bring an established customer base, a proven supply chain for Italian ingredients, and years of hands-on experience running an Italian kitchen to their new gelato and cafe concept, which likely contributed to how quickly Vecchia Gelato and Cafe found its footing after opening in late 2025.

The Preserve has grown into one of Hoover’s more walkable mixed use developments, combining residential neighborhoods with a compact retail and dining corridor, and Vecchia Gelato and Cafe fits naturally into that setting as a spot residents can walk or bike to for a coffee, a scoop of gelato, or a full Italian meal. With two Tamburello family concepts now anchoring the same development, The Preserve has effectively become a small hub of authentic Italian food in Hoover, giving area residents a reason to choose a family owned option over the chain restaurants found along the city’s busier commercial strips.