What started as one, single-oven bakery has grown into a seven-location business.
By Shayna Innocenti
For The Times of Trenton
TRENTON --Pasquale Gervasio made it to America by stowing away on a boat from Italy, eating only lemons for two weeks.
In 1936, he opened an Italian bakery in Trenton with a single brick oven, and over the years its grown from one bakery to a seven-location business that create fresh bread and baked goods that are standouts in a community filled with specialized food shops.
Now, 80 years later, the family still owns the Italian People's Bakery & Deli and the main location on Butler Street stands as an operational remnant in the city's Chambersburg neighborhood.
For Matthew Guagliardo, who has been the bakery's manager of the Trenton bakery for 14 years, there was no question that he would carry on the family tradition that his late great-grandfather founded.
Matthew Guagliardo, the store manger at the main location in Trenton, fills a homemade shell with cannoli filling. (Shayna Innocenti photo)"I grew up in Hamilton, which is just down the street, but we came here every Monday for a pasta dinner with my grandmothers," said Guagliardo. "I don't even know what it would be like not having fresh bread all the time."
Guagliardo began working alongside his parents in the Chambersburg bakery at the age of 12 as a bagger at the register.
On Sunday mornings and holidays, as he bagged, every once in a while, he would help his father, Carmen Guagliardo, make their famous rye bread.
"When it comes to me and my dad, I never argue with him because I am still trying to learn - every day is a learning process," Guagliardo said.
Much like Chambersburg, the Italian People's Bakery has evolved significantly over the decades -- expanding and purchasing the surrounding buildings, incorporating a wholesale business, deli, catering for local business/offices and much more.
While Gervasio's five children continued to operate and grow the bakery, adding the deli in the 1940's, Guagliardo credits his uncles for being able to successfully anticipate the demand of their customers.
"When my uncles saw the demand for something, they went out and got it," explained Guagliardo. "You have to adapt to what's around you."
With the community still evolving, the bakery underwent a million dollar renovation in 2000 with modern and spacious upgrades.
And four years ago, to increase the bread-line production, the bricks, cement and German steel components to a new, Italian-designed oven were shipped in four large units from Italy to Trenton.
Since the bakery is comprised of multiple of buildings, twisting through its location like Sicilian bread, there are a lot of support joists that can't be moved.
So the typical tunnel-ovens used in large-scaled bakeries would not fit in the space. The answer was found in Italy -- a three-tiered oven that was taller, but more compact than designs in the U.S. It was one of seven in the nation at the time.
A display case inside the bakery."The company even sent over two assemblers," said Guagliardo. "We housed them in a hotel, and my dad would have to pick them up every day. They were my dad's best friends for six weeks. I was just surprised how fast they put the thing up."
In the late 1970's, the Guagliardo family also began expanding the bakery, geographically, scouting little subsections of Italian communities within New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
At one point, the bakery had 10 locations, but has since then reduced to seven, with three being personally run by the Guagliardo-clan and four being operated as wholesale franchises.
Two are in Hamilton, two in Bucks County, Pa. as well as locations in Ewing and Mansfield, in Burlington County.
"It's tough running that many stores with just a little bit of family," Guagliardo explained.
With fresh, warm bread every morning - 365 days a year - when the doors open in Trenton at 6 a.m., it's authentic when Guagliardo explains that the ovens are practically baking around the clock.
About 100 employees work in the seven locations, keeping the business in clockwork operation -- with only 15 employees working in the main Chambersburg store, and with Guagliardo's father and mother primarily running the Levittown, Pa. and Mercerville (Hamilton) locations.
Despite the multiple locations, during the holidays, customers still line up at the main store in Chambersburg, waiting for hours for the freshly baked goods. It has become a unique, and reliable, tradition to all of the stores.
Empty parking spaces are rare around the bakery. (Shayna Innocenti photo)"On Christmas it is double parked from the corner, down to the church. It's insane," said Guagliardo.
"At the store out in Hamilton, people literally line around the block, and wait two hours in line on Christmas and Thanksgiving. That's dedication. There are people that have tailgated it. They sat in line with beer on Thanksgiving. They know each other, and they are there at the same times every year. We appreciate the dedication."
On any given day, on Butler Street in the city, cars are double parked with hazard lights flashing during the lunch rush.
And though home to New Jersey, the People's Bakery has gained national popularity over the decades, Guagliardo said.
The bakery is featured in the Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum crime novels and in the movie adaptation for "One for the Money" in 2012, starring actress Katherine Heigl in the title role.
Even though additions to the menu have been made, like the current popular tres leches or three milks (sponge) cake, Guagliardo said that the signature product that people often come back for is the wide selection of breads, and the famous cream donuts.
Guagliardo said that he has shipped his goods all over the country -- donuts to Maine, cookies to California and sandwiches for the Super Bowl down south.
Offhandedly regarded as the "backwards bakery," the bread on Butler Street has been the main selling item followed by the signature pastries.
"It all comes down to the bread," said Guagliardo. "You are not going to go anywhere else and get bread that just came out of the oven 30 minutes ago. Bread is what makes a sandwich, it starts everything."
For Guagliardo personally, while he often cannot resist the cream donuts, his personal favorite is a stick bread with seeds.
"I could eat a whole loaf of that, and I have."
Shayna Innocenti photoWhile the Guagliardo family is always looking for new locations and recipes to expand, and though the demand is little tough for it now, Guagliardo said that for him personally, he would like to see the bakery have a stronger Italian deli and delve more into hot food.
An idea that has been tossed around since the renovation back in 2000, has been to incorporate a cafe attachment to the bakery where customers could get a sandwich, a cup of coffee and a pastry and then sit down to eat it.
Currently, there is a little table-and-chair patio setup next to the bakery, but Guagliardo explained that it's a stand-in for the plans his father had drawn up over a decade ago.
"Around lunchtime, some of the older women often sit out there with coffee and scratch their bingo tickets," Guagliardo said, pointing to the sidewalk out front.
In 80 years, the Italian People's Bakery & Deli has expanded significantly, but the loyal customers, the fresh Italian bread and the family tradition have remained constant. Guagliardo credits his father for retelling much of the family history.
"I don't want to lose all the stories. My father tells me them, but there are so many stories," said Guagliardo.
"But knowing that my great-grandfather came over here to start something from so little, and to make it 80 years, is a great. It is definitely not a single-oven operation anymore."