Boston-born Peter Pappas has returned to his love for sweets with the opening of Pete’s Sweet Treats, an ice-cream and Italian ice shop in Gulf Gate. Pappas originally went to a culinary arts school, so his passion incorporates both baking and ice cream making, “My company name doesn’t say, ‘ice cream,’ and I did that purposely. I love to bake. So, I said, ‘treats,’ because I knew, down the road, I wanted to make sweets other than ice cream. I’m slowly incorporating a lot of baked goods.” Pappas is still in an “experimental” phase, finding a balance between treats that go in the oven and those that go in the freezer. Baked goods are never wasted, any leftovers become toppings for his ice cream. Chocolate chip cookies become chocolate chip crumbles. Flaking lemon pound cake becomes the perfect addition to a tart ice cream scoop. Formerly a pizza-pro who sold Italian ice, or “slush”, alongside his pies, Pappas has branched out and now prides himself on ice cream flavors inspired by natural flavors. Artificial ingredients don’t begin at bubblegum flavoring and end at Red Dye 40, Pappas explained that even when it comes to making ice cream sandwiches with cookies, there are differences in the products he creates. “If you are not natural you’re going to put a stabilizer in the ice cream so that it doesn’t melt as fast,” he says. “When I put my ice cream in between cookies, you’d take a bite out of it and all the ice cream would squirt out.” Despite these hiccups, Pappas isn’t tapping out just yet “Down the road, I’m going to make cookies, pre-scoop them with the ice cream, package them up, and throw them in the freezer as an alternative. I’m going to do the same thing with brownies and whoopie pies and just go from there.” Through trial and error, Pappas has curated a selection of unique flavors that are bound to keep you coming back for more – or asking for a variety of samples (which Pappas is happy to provide): chocolate velvet; cookie butter; coffee oreo; lemon poppyseed; and some 21+ inclusions such as Bailey’s and kahlua almond fudge. An