It’s the same famous cannolis, the same hand-made Italian ices and the same delicious pastries.
It’s the same Egidio’s Pastry Shop, except it is now offering the Italian treats to Bronxites in the Throggs Neck area.
On Saturday, August 28, Egidio’s Pastry Shop held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of its new location at 3432 East Tremont Ave.
“We still use all the old recipes,” said the bakery’s owner, Carmela Lucciola, adding that some treats are still baked in the original shop on 187th Street.
Although the grand opening ceremony was held on Saturday, the store has been open to customers since April. According to Lucciola, issues with renovations held up the official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Egidio’s Pastry Shop has been operating out of the store in Belmont since 1912.
While the freshly filled cannolis and Italian ices remain the most popular goodies sold at the store, the shop sells all types of pastries, as long as they are Italian. Customer favorites include almond biscotti, breads and cakes.
This new store is the first time the pastry shop has branched away from Arthur Avenue since it was established nearly 100 years ago by Pasquale Egidio, an immigrant from Solerno, Italy.
Lucciola, who has been heading the business for about 30 years, said she was driving through the Throggs Neck about a year ago when she realized there was a market for Italian pastries in the area.
“I was just passing by here one day and I didn’t see any pastry shops and I felt opening up a second store here would be the right thing to do,” she said.
But so far business has been a bit slower than expected, Lucciola admits.
She said she started looking into opening up a second shop before the economy took a dive, and now there are less customers than she had hoped.
While her 187th Street store does enough business to keep the five bakers and three vendors very busy, there is typically only one employee at the new East Tremont shop.
Lucciola said she is hoping to turn the trend around by getting more engaged in the community.
Along with putting in a foosball table, Lucciola said she is looking into fixing up the spacious back kitchen and working with local schools to teach cooking classes there for Throggs Neck youth.
“The economy is bad, so people are spending less, but hopefully we can bring kids in here and teach them about baking,” she said.
On Saturday, the grand opening was celebrated with a giant cannoli cake, and several local elected officials came to the event.
“It was really good to see everybody come out,” Lucciola said. “They’re all interested in the new store.”
Reach reporter Max Mitchell at (718) 742-3394 or mmitchell@cnglocal.com
