This beautifully illustrated promotional card introduced the Italian dessert, spumoni, to San Jose via San Remo’s Happiness House.
In the late 1940’s San Remo’s Happiness House featured a variety of frozen delights including ice cream cakes, cannoli and gelato. Gennaro Alfinito, founder of San Remo Company was the self-proclaimed ambassador for what they called the “Aristocrat of Frozen Desserts,” Spumoni!
Happiness House, however, was a short-lived establishment, operating until 1952, before transitioning to San Remo’s Pizza at the same Willow Street location. Although spumoni remained on the menu, there was barely a mention of the fancy dessert by the end of the decade.
Over the years, the building (built in 1921) housed a variety of businesses in what was then a thriving Italian immigrant community. Today, 218 Willow Street houses a flower shop.
Learned Along the Way
What is Spumoni?
Spumoni is a traditional Italian dessert that originated in Naples, Italy and is plural for spumone, which means “foam.” Spumoni was introduced to the United States in the 1870’s and gained popularity when it was featured in the Italian Pavilion during the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. The traditional molded dessert recipe called for three layers of semifreddo (semi-frozen) – an almond layer, semisweet chocolate, and stracciatella. Stracciatella is a type of gelato with irregular bits of chocolate in it. National Spumoni Day is celebrated each year on August 21st.
This piece of Junk History is part of an exhibit at the San Jose Public Library, on display through May 16, 2023.
Junk History: Rediscovering San Jose’s 20th Century Businesses
Vintage Rescue 