Carlo's Bake Shop

Carlo's Bake Shop

Carlo's Bake Shop, commonly known as Carlo's Bakery and also known as Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop,[1] is a bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey, owned by Buddy Valastro. The bakery has gained public attention as the setting of the TLC television series, Cake Boss.

History

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In 1910, Carlo's Bakery was founded by Italian pastry chef Carlo Guastaferro, and in 1964, it was purchased by Bartolo "Buddy" Valastro Sr.[2] Valastro's son Buddy Valastro currently runs the bakery, with help from his four older sisters, three brothers-in-law, and other assorted family members and friends. One notable employee was Sal Picinich, who began working at the bakery shortly after the Valastro family purchased it, and continued until his death on January 30, 2011.[3][4]

The bakery rose to fame with Cake Boss, a reality television series that premiered on TLC in April 2009, depicting the staff of the shop creating elaborate custom-order novelty cakes.[5] As a result, the shop became a tourist attraction,[6] and a key institution in Hoboken and Hudson County.[7]

As a result of the popularity of Cake Boss, Carlo's Bakery built a new factory at Lackawanna Center, a mixed industrial-retail complex in nearby Jersey City.[8] Carlo's Bakery has leased space at the complex, which is used for additional space to make specialty cakes, as well as the ability to make baked goods for shipment across the country. Because of the limited space at the Hoboken location, Carlo's Bakery was unable to ship cakes beyond normal driving distance from the bakery; the bakery had conducted a limited trial Internet sale of pies in October 2009, to test the viability of selling baked goods on the Internet.[9]

On May 24, 2011, Carlo's Bakery opened its first branch location, Cake Boss Cafe, at the Discovery Times Square Exposition at 226 West 44th Street in New York City's Times Square. This location offers Carlo's Bakery's smaller baked goods, as well as bakery and Cake Boss merchandise.[10] On February 10, 2013, the Bakery opened its first full-range branch location in Ridgewood, New Jersey.[11][12] On September 1, 2013, the Bakery opened its third bakery location in Westfield, New Jersey. The next bakery opened on November 23, 2013, in Red Bank, New Jersey.[13]

In January 2012, as a result of the attention brought to the city of Hoboken by the shop and the TV series, the Hudson Reporter named Buddy Valastro Jr. as an honorable mention in its list of Hudson County's 50 most influential people.[14][13]

On March 20, 2014, Carlo's opened a location in Morristown, New Jersey.[15] and on March 31, one in The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, the company's first on the West Coast.[16][17]

On December 5, 2015, Carlo's Bakery opened a location at The Florida Mall in Orlando, Florida.[18][19]

On November 10, 2016, Carlo's opened a kiosk in Willowbrook Mall, in Wayne, New Jersey. Other New Jersey locations include Marlton and Westfield.[20] A month later on December 8, Carlo's opened a location in São Paulo, the company's first bakery outside the United States. Managed by Rick Zavala, the winner of the RecordTV reality television competition series Batalha dos Confeiteiros.[21]

On August 1, 2018, the Red Bank, New Jersey store closed after the lease expired. A spokesperson for the company announced that the company sought to create a different kind of dining experience similar to the location in Texas, for which the Red Bank location was not appropriate. The other five Carlo's Bakery locations in New Jersey remained open.[22][23]

In January 2019, a spokesperson for Carlo's Bakery confirmed that the Morristown and Ridgewood locations for closed in recent weeks. [24]

References

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  1. ^ "Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop" Archived 2013-10-05 at the Wayback Machine. "Carlo's Bake Shop". Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  2. ^ "Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop". Carlo's Bake Shop. Archived from the original on October 18, 2010. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  3. ^ Colaneri, Katie (February 1, 2011). "'Cake Boss' and family mourn loss of 'Employee-of-the-Century' Salvatore Picinich". The Jersey Journal. NJ.com.
  4. ^ "Salvatore Picinich". The Bergen Record. February 3, 2011. Archived from the original on February 7, 2011.
  5. ^ "Meet the Bakery Staff". Discovery.com. Archived from the original on September 19, 2010. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  6. ^ Smith, Ray (December 5, 2010). "Competing for dough: JC resident vies for job on 'Cake Boss' spinoff show". The Hudson Reporter. Archived from the original on 2018-09-02.
  7. ^ "Freeholders name Hoboken corner after Carlo's Bake Shop". The Hudson Reporter. June 11, 2010. Archived from the original on 2018-09-02.
  8. ^ "Lackawanna Center – Retail". Lackawanna Center. Archived from the original on December 2, 2011. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
  9. ^ "Ships, Sonograms and Sister Drama". Cake Boss. Season 4. Episode 5. February 21, 2011. TLC.
  10. ^ Huff, Richard (May 10, 2011). "'Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro expands with Cake Boss Cafe in Times Square, new show 'Next Great Baker'". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on September 29, 2018.
  11. ^ McGrath, Matthew (February 10, 2013). Boss opens a shop in Ridgewood and lines follow.html "'Cake Boss' opens a shop in Ridgewood, and lines follow". NorthJersey.com.[dead link]
  12. ^ Makin, Cheryl (September 1, 2013). "Westfield Opening". MyCentralJersey.com.
  13. ^ a b Spahr, Rob. (September 27, 2013). "Cake Boss' opening new bakery in Red Bank". NJ.com.
  14. ^ Fernández, Adriana Rambay; LaMarca, Stephen; Pope, Gennarose; Smith, Ray; Sullivan, Al; Wright, E. Assata (January 8, 2012). "They've Got the Power". The Union City Reporter. pp. 1, 4–7, 10–11.
  15. ^ Hodgin, Megan Shapiro (March 17, 2014). "'Cake Boss' to open doors at Carlo's Bakery in Morristown this week". NJ.com.
  16. ^ Stapleton, Susan (March 31, 2014). "Buddy Valastro Debuts His Carlo's Bakery Today". Eater Las Vegas.
  17. ^ Brussell, Brittany (May 21, 2014). "Carlo's Bakery Feels Like Something Special". Las Vegas Weekly. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  18. ^ Ribbens, Megan (December 7, 2015). "Buddy Valastro debuts Carlo's Bakery at The Florida Mall". Orlando Business Journal.
  19. ^ Covino, Peter (August 31, 2016). "Let them eat cake: Cake Boss visits Orlando's Carlo's Bakery". Osceola News-Gazette. Archived from the original on March 23, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2018.
  20. ^ Chambers, Hannah (November 11, 2016). "Carlo's Bake Shop from ‘Cake Boss’ opens up in Willowbrook Mall". Inside Jersey.
  21. ^ "Cake Boss abre primeira loja no Brasil com bolo a R$ 200, o quilo". Bom Gourmet (in Brazilian Portuguese). December 8, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2018.
  22. ^ Ward, John T. (August 1, 2018). "RED BANK: 'CAKE BOSS' BAKERY CLOSES". Redbankgreen. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  23. ^ Ryan, Matt (1 August 2018). "Sugary Jersey Shore Favorite Closes Unexpectedly". 94.3 The Point. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  24. ^ Hubbard, Daniel (January 11, 2019). "Carlo's Bakery Closes Ridgewood Location: Report". Ridgewood-Glen Rock, NJ Patch.
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40°44′14″N 74°01′51″W / 40.73715°N 74.03078°W / 40.73715; -74.03078

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