{"id":236567,"date":"2026-07-06T10:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/236567\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:44:07","slug":"south-phillys-italian-bakeries-offer-sweet-treats-and-century-old-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/236567\/","title":{"rendered":"South Philly\u2019s Italian bakeries offer sweet treats and century-old heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia saw a huge wave of Italian immigration from the 1880s through the 1920s, and more than a century later still has about 105,000 residents who claim Italian ancestry, the second highest figure among U.S. cities after New York.<\/p>\n

That legacy and living community remain highly visible in place names around South Philly, where many of the immigrants originally clustered \u2014 most notably, in the Italian Market along South 9th Street \u2014 and in the area\u2019s restaurants and shops that continue to bear the names of their founding families.<\/p>\n

Some of the best known are the neighborhood\u2019s cherished Italian bakeries. Once likely numbering in the hundreds, several survived into the 21st century and continue to flourish, turning out hoagie rolls, tomato pies, cannoli and cakes that draw customers from around the city and the region. Some of them, like Isgro Pastries<\/a>, have won broader acclaim and ship their products nationwide.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cannoli from Termini Brothers. (Billy Penn file photo)<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also part of the Philadelphia area\u2019s larger, historic baking industry, which sprang up in the rapidly growing city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and remains a vibrant economic force.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The biggest local companies include Amoroso<\/a>, which produces rolls for cheesesteaks throughout the region; founded by an Italian immigrant family, it was based in West Philly for more than 100 years and moved to New Jersey a decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tasty Baking Company, inventor of the Tasty Kake, opened in North Philly in 1914 and is now based in the Navy Yard. Keebler and its famous elves trace their roots to a bakery opened in 1862 at 12th and Christian streets, according to the Philadelphia Encyclopedia<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the local industry encompasses giant firms, midsize producers like Merzbacher\u2019s and Baker Street, and a dizzying array of artisan bakeries, gourmet restaurants, inventive cake and donut places, pretzel companies and specialty shops offering pastries and breads in French, Mexican, Syrian, Chinese, Argentinian, Pennsylvania Dutch, Jewish and other traditions.<\/p>\n

South Philly in particular remains a destination for pastry lovers, with favorites like Machine Shop and Mighty Bread \u2014 both recognized by the James Beard Foundation \u2014 along with the Artisan Boulanger Patissier and Kouklet Brazilian Bakery, among others.<\/p>\n

Our list below focuses on the neighborhood\u2019s Italian bakeries, including names you\u2019ll likely recognize and a few that may be new discoveries for people who live elsewhere in Philly or are new to the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"Customers picked up pastries at Isgro\u2019s ahead of Easter Sunday in April 2022. (Emily Rizzo\/WHYY News)<\/p>\n

Isgro Pastries<\/p>\n

The venerable queen of the city\u2019s Italian pastry shops, the 122-year-old bakery sees lines down the block before Christmas, Easter and other holidays. Isgro stocks a huge variety of fresh-made cookies, cakes and other pastries, with specialties including filled-to-order cannoli, ricotta cookies, and traditional Italian rum cakes.<\/p>\n

1009 Christian St.<\/p>\n

Termini Brothers<\/p>\n

Two brothers opened the bakery in 1921 and moved it across the street to their flagship location in 1938. When it underwent renovation<\/a> in 2023, customers snatched up old tiles as souvenirs. Termini is famed for its cannoli, which have been described<\/a> as having \u201ca thinner shell and a more citrus-forward filling\u201d than Isgro\u2019s, and offers treats like traditional Musticciolli Christmas cookies and coffee ring cakes.<\/p>\n

1523 S. 8th St.<\/p>\n

Sarcone\u2019s<\/p>\n

Multiple generations of Sarcones (Luigi, Peter and three Louis\u2019s) have run the bakery since 1918. It\u2019s best known for its seeded rolls, which are \u201cconsidered the gold standard for hoagies,\u201d per the Inquirer<\/a>, and are served in many Philly sandwich shops. Locals also love the cannoli, cookies and thick, \u201csticky-sweet\u201d tomato pie<\/a>. (Up the block, Sarcone\u2019s formerly deli space is now home to Angelo\u2019s Pizzeria.)<\/p>\n

758 S. 9th St.<\/p>\n

Frangelli\u2019s<\/p>\n

The bakery opened in 1947, moved to its current home in 1994, and has been owned by baker John Colosi since 2010. Hand-cut, hand-pumped donuts are the stars here \u2014 glazed, frosted, jelly, cream, ice cream (!), or filled with cannoli cream and chocolate chips to make the Frannoli<\/a>, which Colosi invented. There are also traditional cannolis, Italian cream cake, danishes and other sweet delights.<\/p>\n

847 West Ritner St.<\/p>\n

Varallo Brothers<\/p>\n

A pair of Italian immigrant brothers opened the bakery or \u201cpasticceria\u201d in 1981, making it a relative newcomer to the neighborhood. The shop offers several cannoli varieties \u2014 among them pistachio, a seasonal pumpkin flavor, and ricotta with chunks of chocolate \u2014 along with pies, tiramisu and a dozen other cakes, cookies like amaretti and biscotti, and other traditional pastries.<\/p>\n

1639 South 10th St.<\/p>\n

\"\"New York Bakery on South 11th Street in South Philadelphia. (WHYY file photo)<\/p>\n

New York Bakery<\/p>\n

Yes, the name is a little irksome at first, but no one cares after sampling the tomato pie, whose \u201csweet-tangy gravy\u201d and \u201ccrisp yet chewy crust\u201d have put it at the top of best-of lists<\/a>. Opened in 1926 and run by the Candeloro family<\/a> since 1945, the store also has pizza, highly praised bread and rolls, brioche, biscuits, croissants, pizza dough to bake at home and much else.<\/p>\n

2215 S 11th St.<\/p>\n

Cacia\u2019s<\/p>\n

Opened in 1953 and still run by the same family, the bakery is lauded for its tomato pie<\/a>, which \u201cstrikes a perfect balance between not too sweet and not too garlicky, with a biscuit-like crust.\u201d It also serves up pretty much everything else \u2014 bread and rolls, several types of pizza and stromboli, pies, cakes and cannoli \u2014 and every Thanksgiving the Cacias roast more than 100 turkeys<\/a> in their brick oven for appreciative customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1526 W Ritner St.<\/p>\n

\"\"Baker Joe Cacia roasts Thanksgiving turkeys for customers at Cacia\u2019s Bakery in South Philly. November 2020. (Liz Tung \/ WHYY)<\/p>\n

Faragalli\u2019s\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dense, chewy Italian bread the family has been baking in their wood-fired brick oven since 1948 continues to draw raves, as do their lattice-topped tomato and spinach pastries, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin loaves, and other specialties. Vibration from street construction damaged the oven in 2024 and nearly forced Faragalli\u2019s to close<\/a>, but community members contributed more than $50,000<\/a> toward repairs and the shop reopened after 7 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1400 S. 13th St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Philadelphia saw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13320,101866,79593,101867,48415,50503,12262,20006,69,71,70,976,101868,645,3220,101869,101870],"class_list":["post-236567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-bakery","tag-cacias-bakery","tag-city-guide","tag-isgro-pastries","tag-italian","tag-italian-american","tag-italian-cuisine","tag-italian-market","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-restaurant","tag-sarcones-bakery","tag-south-philadelphia","tag-south-philly","tag-tastykake","tag-termini-brothers-bakery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}