Montevideo · helado
Los Trovadores
The clearest single-site, longest-running Montevideo heladería found, with named on-record testimony from both a 50-year employee and, separately, its current owner — though the founding family itself sold out decades ago, a fact this record states plainly rather than implying continuity that isn't there.
What to order
dulce de leche granizado (named as the current best-seller in the El Observador piece); melon and sambayón named as the historic house specialities
What we know
- Founding year is contested between two sources: the business's own schema markup states foundingDate 1934; El Observador's 2017 profile states the shop has served 'sus productos artesanales a los uruguayos' for 79 years, implying an origin around 1938
- Founded by the Salvino Soleri family, Italian immigrants; the name references 'trovador', a medieval poet, chosen because founder José Salvino loved Italian music
- Ownership passed from the founding family to a Spanish family (the Fernández), then to an Italian-heritage family (the Toscani), then to current owner Gustavo Padula roughly 24 years before the 2017 article — the founding family has not run the business for decades
- Longtime employee Franco Fortunes, working at the shop for more than 50 years as of 2017, gave a named, dated eyewitness account of the shop's single busiest historic night
- Owner Padula states he preserves 'la misma receta de preparación original' from the shop's founding despite the multiple ownership changes; estimated 150 litres of ice cream sold daily in summer
- A separate 2022/23 profile (Subrayado) independently describes the shop as nearly 90 years old, the oldest in the country, producing daily year-round from natural fruit and imported Belgian chocolate, with a diabetic-friendly line
- Status
- open
- Address
- Gabriel Pereira 3202, esquina Pedro Berro, Pocitos, Montevideo
- Maker
- Gustavo Padula, current owner (since approximately 1993 per the 2017 article), learned ice-cream making in Germany; not related to the founding family
- Website
- lostrovadores.com.uy/
- Last checked
- 2026-08-22
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