Rori’s Artisanal Creamery will open its newest location Friday at 270 Storke Rd. in Goleta, extending the locally founded brand’s footprint with a long-anticipated move driven by customer demand.
The opening marks the company’s fourth location in Santa Barbara County and its eighth overall.
“We’ve had so many people coming from Goleta into our Santa Barbara and Montecito shops over the years,” said Damien Kriteman, Rori’s CEO. “This gives them something closer to home.”
Founder and namesake Rori Trovato, a trained chef whose background spans pastry, catering and teaching in France, said the new location reflects both growth and a continued focus on community.
(Photo by Joy Martin/Special for the News-Press)
“We’re excited to connect with this community and be part of the daily rhythm here,” she said.
The expansion reflects a broader strategy of entering markets where demand for small-batch ice cream already exists, while maintaining a centralized production model.
All ice cream and house-made inclusions, including cookies, brittles and candies, are produced at the company’s Carpinteria facility, allowing the business to scale without changing its process.
Trovato remains closely involved, overseeing production and continuing to approach the product from a chef’s perspective, with an emphasis on building each component from scratch.
Over the years, Rori’s has grown while maintaining its small-batch approach, with about 20 to 24 flavors offered at a time and seasonal rotations introduced monthly.
For Trovato, the business has evolved significantly since its early days.
“When we opened Montecito, nobody knew who we were,” she said. “Now it’s such a different experience opening a store where the town really knows you.”
Her connection to the product, however, dates back much earlier.
Growing up, she spent Sundays at her grandmother’s home, where ice cream was made by hand each week. She would arrive early so she wouldn’t miss the process, helping her grandfather make it from start to finish.
“I would be on the back porch with my grandpa churning that thing,” she said. “The whole concept had always fascinated me. It was just so simple.”
That experience carried through a culinary career that included pastry work and teaching in France before she turned to building a product of her own.
“I had been in every facet of the restaurant business, but I had never owned a product,” she said. “That turned into the highlight of my career.”
What has remained constant is the role the product plays for customers.
“Ice cream makes people happy,” Trovato said. “Selling something that brings that kind of reaction is the best part of what we do.”
That idea continues to shape the company as it grows, from how flavors are developed to how each shop is designed to serve its surrounding community.
“You can’t teach passion,” she said. “No matter what school you go to or how much training, you either have it or you don’t. And if you don’t follow your passion, what’s the point?”
In Goleta, that philosophy will take shape in a new setting, one built to serve the same simple purpose that first drew her to the craft: creating something people gather around and return to.
Rori’s will open its Goleta location Friday.
Here’s the scoop: In a tradition the company does not widely advertise, ice cream will be free on opening day.
