A gelato shop without any gelato?  What next? A fashion show without heels? A talent show without talent?

Leave the kids at home, this place is for grownups. The scene is a cross between the Nutty Professor, Heston Blumenthal and with a touch of Thomas Dux-esque adoration of produce. Men in white lab coats with mad black rimmed glasses are buzzing about pouring stuff from conical flasks, citrus coloured KitchenAids are whirring and crowds are forming as the X factor gelato technicians entertain.

Don’t expect your ordinary line up of tubs and pretty pastel colours in this joint. Every day glass bottles are filled with fresh batches of milk custard base, chillin with an infusion awaiting your direction.

For the flavours think buttered popcorn, cigar smoked Hainanese coffee, spices such as chilli or earl grey. Order ‘Plain old choc’ and you get 70% Callebaut. Whilst ‘Kinky Vanilla’ kicks it up with spice middle tones finishing with a chilli hit, and ‘Muddy Cream’ reinvents cookies and cream making the old version seem more inept than an episode of The Shire.

Anatomy charts, dark striped walls and an ever-changing blackboard menu with spider diagrams give and indication that your taste buds are going to get a workout from this science lab-cum-shop.

So how are these gelatos? The supernatural potion comes from the 2x 240litre tanks of liquid nitrogen … Order your poison with your personal gelato barista, and see it made it front of your very eyes as they pour milk base, slices of fine cream cheese, fresh berries and liquid nitrogen. Piff puff poof! 10 seconds of whirring from a KitchenAid and your personal Blueberry Cheesecake gelato is ready.

N2 Extreme Gelato 
43/1 Dixon Street, Sydney 2000
Open:  Every day 1 – 11pm (12 till 12pm in the summer)