See How NYC’s Gelso & Grand Built The Official ‘LEGO Movie 2’ Cannoli

Photo: Max Evry for Mandatory

Christina Bartoli is the executive chef at Little Italy’s Gelso & Grand in New York City, a rustic Italian cuisine restaurant that likes to have a little fun with its food. They offer old-time classics with a modern twist, and one of their most famous items is their cannoli, a rotating series of foot-long creations unique to this restaurant. Recently, Warner Bros. Pictures reached out to Bartoli to design one of these super cannolis to tie in with the release of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second One, currently the No. 1 movie in America.

“They just sent us an email and said, ‘Hey, we really like this designed cannoli you do. We think this could represent us really well,'” Bartoli explained. “They asked us to make a mock idea and gave us a timeframe. We sent it over and immediately they said, ‘Let’s do it!'”

After rewatching all the previous LEGO movies as well as the trailer for the new film, Christina Bartoli developed a concept that would not only be rich, sweet, and tasty but tie into the film’s story.

“What they were looking for was to highlight the two main characters, Emmet and Lucy/Wyldstyle,” said Bartoli. “They also wanted little whimsical characters from the movie thrown into it, but the main thing was to give the attitude of those two characters, to which I think I did a pretty good job! Lucy’s supposed to be a little spunky, a harder shell, and Emmet is just warm and fuzzy all over.”

Under an intense deadline, the Gelso & Grand team managed to put together a creation that goes beyond mere dessert and into the realm of edible art.

“We had 10 days from start to finish,” she reveals. “Ten days to have a design sent over, order all the things we needed to make it, and have one locked and ready to go. The most difficult part of it was getting the right stuff: What color schemes were available, and what could be shipped to you in a short amount of time. In the end, Warner Bros. said it perfectly represented the two characters from the movie to a T!”

The official LEGO Movie 2 cannoli is currently available at Gelso & Grand for $25, and feeds two to three people. It will be available through the end of February.

You can view the step-by-step making of Gelso & Grand’s The LEGO Movie 2 cannoli in our exclusive gallery below!

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Photos: Max Evry for Mandatory

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