New business discovers Lemont's appetite for gelato

LEMONT – Before the gelato shop 4 Penguins opened, Lemont resident Kim Valone knew she wanted to do two things: create a business her whole family could work in and run the business in Lemont.

“It was very important for me to have this business in Lemont because I wanted to give back to the community,” she said.

4 Penguins opened in late July at 12263 Walker Road, serving homemade gelato and shaved ice snoballs.

Valone’s family has lived in Lemont for more than 20 years. She worked in mortgage banking but left to raise her four children. She continues to work at home with a wholesale travel company.

Her husband, Garry, handles the advertising and marketing and her children work with her in the shop. Her oldest daughter is a 21-year-old student at Purdue University, and she has three sons – ages 18, 16 and 14 – who attend Lemont High School and Old Quarry Middle School.

The name for the shop was inspired by her having four children and her late mother’s favorite animal, the penguin.

Valone said the original plan was to run a seasonal business selling snoballs out of a trailer. But her proposed stationary structure would not have met the village’s commercial design standards, according to Planning and Economic Development Director Charity Jones.

Valone said she could have looked to open her business outside of Lemont but wanted to stay in town and decided to rent a space.

When looking at what else she could serve besides the snoballs, she said she discovered gelato.

“We honestly thought the shaved snoballs would be the big thing, but the kids here in Lemont are extremely receptive to gelato – more so than we thought,” she said.

Though she had no experience making gelato, Valone now creates her own flavors everyday. She was trained by a chef from the same company that sold her the equipment to make it.

She said her display case holds 10 trays of gelato and she makes the gelato throughout the day.

“If you’re in here in the morning, what’s in our case at 11 [a.m.] may not necessarily be the same thing when you come back at 6 [p.m.],” she said.

Valone said she will serve warmer foods for when the temperature turns colder, though she will have gelato year-round.

She has already started serving coffee and hot chocolate and is looking at adding muffins, scones, croissants and soup to the menu.

Another feature she plans to start is a gift cup service. Customers can purchase an item for a friend, leave a cup on a shelf with their name on it and tell them that it is waiting at the shop.

Though the shop attracts customers of all ages, Valone said she wants it to be a kids’ hangout spot.

During the summer, they had a cornhole game on the side of the building, and she said she plans to add more tables outside next summer.

Valone said she has regular customers and most of the business has been attracted by word-of-mouth.

“We have people who come in who already say that they are addicts,” she said.