Our Story

Owner of Costa Sorrento & Dolce Sorrento - Nino Cioffi is a third generation gelato maker and restaurateur - from Sorrento in Southwestern Italy. Nino Cioffi strives to embrace tradition, being inventive, maintaining the utmost quality and creating mouthwatering, authentic Italian food.

In the early 1950s, Nino’s grandfather, Augusto Davide, opened one of the very first gelato parlours in Sorrento: Davide il Gelato.

In the 1980s, Nino’s parents, Rosa and Vincenzo Cioffi, continued the family tradition by opening their own shop: Bougainvillea. As a family business, Nino worked with his parents, his brother, Gianluca, and his sister, Teresa. With management eventually passing to Nino, Bougainvillea was transformed into a sit down restaurant accommodating more than 300 guests.

Nearly 60 years after the opening of Davide il Gelato, with a dream to continue his family’s legacy of restaurateurs , entrepreneurs & gelato makers, Nino came to Canada in June 2008.

After successfully managing two Italian restaurants in Maple and Toronto, while maintaining the authenticity, passion & ingenuity that brought his family success in Sorrento, Italy, in October 2018, Nino opened Costa Sorrento in Downtown Markham, where he offers homemade pasta, pizza & desserts.

With the success of Costa Sorrento, inspired by his family’s history, Nino looked onwards, opening an expansion of the restaurant, exclusively offering a wide range of homemade gelato, sorbet, desserts & pastries.

From Nino Cioffi, this is Dolce Sorrento.