From La Cigale

La Cigale

The single best-documented Montevideo heladería, with a named current operator speaking on the record about recipe provenance, ingredient sourcing and the deliberate choice to scale into a chain — the clearest available Montevideo counterpart to the chain-vs-single-site distinction that Persicco raises in Buenos Aires.

What to order
dulce de leche (its various forms) per the CEO's own statement of the top-selling flavour; pistachio and vanilla-pod as house specialities also named directly

What we know

Founded 1959 by the Urrutia family (Italian-gelato enthusiasts) as one of three same-name-in-different-languages heladerías (La Chicharra, Cantegrill, La Cigale); bought by Carlos Lorenzo in 1969, now run by his daughter as second-generation buyer-family, not founding family
Named ingredient provenance in the CEO's own words: national/Uruguayan dairy and dulce de leche and local fruit (strawberry, lemon, orange, raspberry), but imported Belgian 80%-cacao chocolate of Ecuadorian/Cameroonian cacao origin, Madagascar vanilla pods ('no trabajamos con esencia de vainilla, trabajamos con chaucha de vainilla'), and Sicilian Bronte pistachio
Explicit no-artificial-ingredients claim: 'no se utiliza ningún tipo de saborizante ni colorante, ningún producto artificial'
Scaled to 18-20 branches concentrated in Montevideo plus supermarket and delivery distribution — a deliberate strategy stated by the CEO ('donde estés, nos podés encontrar') rather than a single-site artisanal model
CEO names Uruguay, alongside Argentina, as one of the few Latin American countries with a genuine Italian-style artisanal ice cream tradition present in every neighbourhood

Status: open
Address: Requena 1550, Cordón, Montevideo (flagship; a second long-running branch is at Roque Graseras 845 esquina Scosería, Pocitos)
Maker: Magdalena Lorenzo, general manager/CEO, daughter of Carlos Lorenzo who bought the business in 1969
Opened: 1959
Website: lacigale.com.uy/
Last checked: 2026-08-22

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