when I lived in Italy I would always scour a new city for what my friends and I referred to as secret bakeries
one night we closed the bars and were walking home past santa croce in firenze
it was nearly 5am and we suddenly could smell sweet pastries in the air
literally following our noses we wound through labyrinthine alleyways until we came across an halfway open garage door
looking in, the garage was full of industrial ovens and wheeled racks full of newly baked pastries prepped to fill the glass counters of every bakery and coffee shop around the city
we got an employees attention and politely asked to buy one of those fresh, warm, straight out the oven pastries
the bakers were happy to sell us any of the pastries all for one euro each
the first time was a magical experience and now i'm always sure to take a night to walk the streets of any italian city at 5am looking for a secret bakery baking the fresh pastries before they are sent out into the city
it was a fun moniker my friends and i gave these garage bakeries
the secret is more about the unpublished locations and less about the idea of it.. would you prefer the use of 'silent bakery'?
though one such 'secret bakery' may produce the pastries listed in the article i think this open door discovery is more closely tied to the culture of italy, you may be hard pressed to walk through residential areas of nj and find a silent bakery but give it a try and report back if you find some secret spot to get these pastries straight from the ovens
the anecdote is just a fun thing this article reminded me of
one night we closed the bars and were walking home past santa croce in firenze
it was nearly 5am and we suddenly could smell sweet pastries in the air
literally following our noses we wound through labyrinthine alleyways until we came across an halfway open garage door
looking in, the garage was full of industrial ovens and wheeled racks full of newly baked pastries prepped to fill the glass counters of every bakery and coffee shop around the city
we got an employees attention and politely asked to buy one of those fresh, warm, straight out the oven pastries
the bakers were happy to sell us any of the pastries all for one euro each
the first time was a magical experience and now i'm always sure to take a night to walk the streets of any italian city at 5am looking for a secret bakery baking the fresh pastries before they are sent out into the city