Raised in Plainview on Long Island and educated in upstate New York, Joel Gutman spent most of his life living in Westchester County, a suburb of Manhattan. He has enjoyed a successful career in sales management for HRP, a national television representative firm, since he joined them in 1981.
In 2003, Gutman decided to accept a company transfer to Los Angeles, hoping to begin a new stage in his life. He was in the midst of a divorce, and his daughter, the younger of his two children, was preparing for college. Joel made the move together with his son, who was beginning studies at USC Film School. With an anchor in his newly adopted home, Gutman settled in, managing an office of 35 and supervising sales in HRP’s three offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles.
For almost a month, the teenage daughter of mutual friends and her friend Annika, the fourteen year old daughter of Gail Silverton, had been promoting their idea to match-make Joel and Gail. A dinner party was finally arranged for the two single parents to meet with successful results.
The timing was right for both and the romance blossomed. Joel, accustomed to the pace and intensity of the east coast, learned to adapt to Silverton’s healthy influence of spontaneity and adventure.
During the courtship, Joel learned of Gail’s vision for Gelato Bar, a neighborhood
business that would recapture the ambiance of an Italian piazza and infuse it with
an American sensibility.
JOEL GUTMAN
Co-Owner / Proprietor
