“The Palace of Cold” founded by John fassi in 1880, the historic ice cream parlor that appears in the film "Roman Holiday" passed into the hands of the Korean food multinational Haitai Confectionery and Foods. The Asians want to relaunch the Fassi brand (already present in the world with over 60 points of sale) by opening 300 stores in Korea and another 100 abroad, to obtain 100 million in turnover by 2020. These are the numbers of the acquisition operation announced by the Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners law firm, which follows the Korean group in the transition.
The "Palazzo del Freddo" is one of the last corners of quality and successful craftsmanship that has made Roman ice cream a pride exported and imitated all over the world. Now, the whole world will be able to enjoy it on a very large scale, admitted and not granted that the quality that the Fassi family has guaranteed to Romans and tourists for 134 years remains unchanged when the keys are handed over to the Koreans in Haitai.
Precisely the guarantee of artisanal quality is for Haitai one of the stakes – perhaps the only one – imposed by the Fassi family, which has not released any statements so far. For the tourists who flock to the Esquiline, it probably won't change much. For the Romans, on the other hand, passing through Via Principe Eugenio 65 could have a different taste from now on.
