"Beloved Old Bakery Rises Again"

New shop owner takes his baking seriously and he has his predecessor's blessing

By PATRICIA TALORICO / The News Journal

07/03/2005

WILMINGTON -- When Anthony DiFonzo Sr. sold the last loaf of Italian bread in July 2004 at his 59-year-old DiFonzo's Bakery, it marked the end of an era in Little Italy.

Longtime customers of the shop at the corner of Union and Howland streets wondered where they would go in the neighborhood for slices of tomato pie and DiFonzo's famed sandwich rolls.

DiFonzo, who bowed out of the business because of a shoulder injury, never officially retired. At the time, the 70-year-old Brandywine Hundred resident would say only that his shop was closed "indefinitely."

Now, a year later, DiFonzo has found someone he trusts to be given the keys of the beloved bakery that was founded in 1945 by his father, Alex.

"Bread is back!" reads a sign outside of the business that will now be known as Black Lab Breads Inc. Pennsylvania baker Barry Ciarrocchi and his wife, Sandy, who have leased the space from the DiFonzo family for an undisclosed price, plan to open an Italian-style retail bakery by the end of the month.

"He's going to do a good job," said DiFonzo, who will not be involved in the bakery production. "We're glad Barry is going to continue there."

"This is the first place I ever ate good bread," said Barry Ciarrocchi, 41, as he took a break on Thursday from installing a French hearth stone oven in the backroom.

"It's difficult for me to come in here. People here in this neighborhood are used to really good bread. Mr. DiFonzo set the bar high. The real pressure is on, but I feel very confident in my product. I think people will really like it. You can't just bake some crappy bread and try to sell it. That's a real slap in the face."

Ciarrocchi plans to bake DiFonzo-style rolls and tomato pies as well as his own crusty Italian loaves, herb focaccia and semolina-based breads six days a week. "I happen to love rye and pumpernickel, so we'll have that on certain days." Ciarrocchi also hopes to make bagels.

The bakery will join two pastry shops now in Little Italy. Sweet Somethings, a retail and wholesale dessert shop owned by Lee and Pamela Slaninko, opened just eight months ago at 1006 N. Union St. Sheila Papa has been offering cakes, pies and other sweet treats since 2001 at Papa's Pastry Shop, at 600 N. Union St.

While Ciarrocchi has worked as a pastry chef, he said he has no plans to make desserts. "I'm already flanked by two great dessert shops. They can do it a lot better than I can."

Pamela Slaninko, whose shop sells specialty cakes, pies, pastries and wedding cakes, believes the bakery will be an asset to the community. "When we opened, everybody said 'Do you do bread?'" she said, shaking her head no.

Ciarrocchi, whose first cousin is KYW-TV news anchor Pat Ciarrocchi, comes from a family that owns mushroom businesses in southern Chester County. He has a master's degree in plant pathology from Penn State University, but baking bread has always been his true love. "I think Pat and I are the only ones who didn't get into the mushroom industry," Ciarrocchi joked.

The Kennett Square, Pa., resident attended a professional bread making program at the prestigious San Francisco Baking Institute and worked as a manager at several well-known artisanal Philadelphia bakeries including Baker Street Bread Co. and Metropolitan Bakery. Most recently, he learned how to make pizza dough at Marengo's Pizzeria in Avondale, Pa., while searching for a site for his bakery.

The name of the business, Black Lab Breads, "goes back to my college days when I was working in labs," he said. Ciarrocchi, long interested in chemistry, said it took him several years to perfect the art of making bread. "It was always seemed like some black art."

When Ciarrocchi felt confident in his bread baking abilities, he contacted DiFonzo about purchasing his business. Ciarrocchi then brought the baker samples of his baguettes, rolls and focaccia.

"It was good bread," DiFonzo said.

Ciarrocchi, who plans to hire five people, started renovations last month. He declined to give the cost. "It's expensive. We are following our business plan and we are trying not to go over our budget," he said. And he doesn't plan to change too many DiFonzo's features. "When people come through the front door, I want them to say, 'This is how I remember it.'"