Brazza gelato and coffee on Lonsdale is a new business venture of brothers Tony (left) and Lino Mastrangelo, who have brought healthful gelato to North Vancouver. CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun

Put the words "accountant" and "Enron" together and they evoke the bitter aftertaste left by America's biggest bankruptcy.

Put an accountant and a former Enron associate together and you get a smooth and sumptuous blend of healthful gelato and award-winning coffee, a genuine taste of Italy on Vancouver's North Shore.

Welcome to brazza gelato and coffee, the unlikely creation of two white-collar professionals who have abandoned the corporate rat race to spend 17-hour days pursuing their passion.

It helps that the accountant is Tony Mastrangelo, 36, a well-established chartered accountant in public practice in North Vancouver, while the former Enron associate is his brother, Lino, 33, who spent two-and-a-half years being groomed as an executive at the ill-fated Texas energy company.

Both are untainted by the dubious number crunching that dragged down the seventh biggest company in the U.S. and seriously undermined investor confidence in corporate America.

In fact, Lino, one of 4,200 employees laid off in December, 2001, is another victim whose stock options and shares were rendered worthless overnight. While his retirement savings were wiped out, he says others fared worse. Some employees mortgaged their homes to buy Enron shares and were left with nothing.

For the future of brazza, opened two weeks ago on the 1800-block of Lonsdale Avenue, it helps that Mastrangelo relatives in Milan are famed purveyors of home-made gelato.

Hospitality and sound business practice are part of the family fabric but when the Mastrangelo parents immigrated to Vancouver in 1962, they wanted something more for their two sons.

Lino wanted to be a baker while attending North Vancouver's Windsor secondary school but was encouraged to develop his academic prowess.

He acquired science and engineering degrees and an MBA at McGill in Montreal and the University of Texas in Austin.

Tony, while happy to continue in practice as a CA helping small and medium-sized businesses, was scheming with his brother to get into the gelato business long before Enron hit the front pages.

When events forced their hand, Lino trained as a gelato maker in Milan while they surveyed the Lower Mainland for a location where gelato was in short supply. They realized it was on their own doorstep when they met others who were crossing bridges to buy the real thing.

Gelato must not be confused with ice-cream, Lino insists. It's far healthier, containing four to six per cent milk fat, compared to a minimum of 12 per cent milk fat and often much more in ice-cream.

It also contains less induced air, which gives it a smoother texture, and it is made on the premises in a variety of colourful concoctions from the freshest ingredients.

For the ultimate seal of authenticity, brazza boasts state of the art Italian machinery, including a La Marzocco FB 70, known as the Ferrari of espresso machines.

But Tony, the accountant, remains firmly focused on the bottom line and prefers not to overstate the Italian connection.

"We don't buy exclusively from Italy, we shop the world," he said. brazza's coffee, for example, is roasted in Chicago.

"We do a unique Italian gelato but we are purposefully not bombarding people with Italian themes. We are trying to make this a social, pleasant and warm environment for all kinds of people."

The open-door approach has already attracted a broad range of customers, including a significant population of diabetics who are attracted to Lino's sugar-free gelato, and Asians who enjoy the coffee shop ambience but demand green tea.

All that matters is that patrons get "a beautiful, good cup," the brothers' translation of the Italian word, brazza, at any time from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday or from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends.

What's the personal finance lesson in all of this? Pursue your passion and the money will follow. And you better have passion to put in those kinds of hours.

mkane@png.canwest.com