Best Bakery in Connecticut Ever

[Hey Adrien!]

I’m not a baked goods guy, but I respect the care of Flour, Water, Salt in Darien.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Kibbe,

You think Beldotti is better than De Mare?

There was (until about 35-40 years ago) a very good German bakery on Cove Road (Kralich's) but sadly they are also gone.

De Mare is the bomb. Grew up walking distance from the Greenwich location and every Easter and Thanksgiving my mom would give me $20 to walk down there and pick our pastry miniatures for each holiday. It’s the OG of my childhood and was lucky to have my grad school location in the same industrial complex of the Stamford location.

 

[August_West]

Take a drive down to Stamford, my friend. Beldotti Bakery is your answer. Might be the only stand-alone, full-service kosher bakery left in CT, with a full array of Italian and Jewish baked goods. Grab a poppy or sesame challah while you’re there.

This is the way. My Brother in law is obsessed with finding the best, and we've sampled from everywhere. I bought him one in NYC when at BET and it was OK, but he is on the grail hunt.... last week I stopped at Libbys in New Haven just to bring him some B+W's (all my other Italian pastries were Lucibellos. which I was at just before it) They were nice looking cookies, but they just didn't ring his bell.

Then I realized he is just never going to like the Italian version no matter how good the bakery. I've eliminated Italian bakeries as a source now, it has to be Jewish. Im sure of it.

Love your rec. Hard to find good Jewish bakeries outside of the City. Im going . Thank you.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Joey Cupcakes on Newbury Street in Boston is incredible.

 

[dvegas]

Check out under the radar (expensive but worth it) Isabelle et Vincent in Fairfield. Absolute bomb baguettes, croissants & French pastry.

 

[karstenkibbe]

Kibbe,

You think Beldotti is better than De Mare?

There was (until about 35-40 years ago) a very good German bakery on Cove Road (Kralich's) but sadly they are also gone.

I’m 53. I remember Kralich’s well. Fantastic. Also Karp’s Jewish bakery on Washington Blvd, next to the beautiful old church, just before UConn-Stamford campus. Cerbone’s (the predecessor to Beldotti in Newfield Green). Mario Cerbone was French-Italian and the breadth of his pastry skills was off the charts.

To answer your question… for custom cakes, DiMare every time. For the variety, DiMare also. BUT, if I want on-the-spot, hand-filled cannoli or Sfogliatella and Zeppole, I prefer Beldotti. Also, no bakery matches Beldotti for breads - Italian, French and Jewish. Their Friday/Saturday-only corn rye is not of this world. At the end of the day, I think it’s simply personal preference and can’t go wrong with either.

 

[karstenkibbe]

I’m not a baked goods guy, but I respect the care of Flour, Water, Salt in Darien.

That dude is a master. We lived on his Thursday night sourdough crust pizzas during the height of Covid. Expensive but amazing.

 

[August_West]

came here to post this, haha.

i love fancy french stuff too, but i feel like the italian cookies at lucibellos are somewhere in my dna.

Post/Handle

 

[karstenkibbe]

This is the way. My Brother in law is obsessed with finding the best, and we've sampled from everywhere. I bought him one in NYC when at BET and it was OK, but he is on the grail hunt.... last week I stopped at Libbys in New Haven just to bring him some B+W's (all my other Italian pastries were Lucibellos. which I was at just before it) They were nice looking cookies, but they just didn't ring his bell.

Then I realized he is just never going to like the Italian version no matter how good the bakery. I've eliminated Italian bakeries as a source now, it has to be Jewish. Im sure of it.

Love your rec. Hard to find good Jewish bakeries outside of the City. Im going . Thank you.

Go early morning on a Friday or Saturday just so you can snag a loaf of corn rye, which they only bake on those days, and grab some fresh donuts - they have about 15-20 varieties daily. Black-and-whites in the middle case. Traditional Jewish cookies in the case as soon as you walk in, Italian pastries in the far case.

 

[elmcityboy]

Take a drive down to Stamford, my friend. Beldotti Bakery is your answer. Might be the only stand-alone, full-service kosher bakery left in CT, with a full array of Italian and Jewish baked goods. Grab a poppy or sesame challah while you’re there.

have you been to ricotta in new haven yet? it's a new-ish kosher bakery and pizza place downtown on chapel st. not sure about the pizza (i am not kosher and there is obviously plenty of other pizza to eat in new haven) but the bakery is really good.

my girlfriend's family is from the balkans and she introduced me to burek. i had the israeli version (bureka) here for the first time. crazy good.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Average at best

Qualifier on this comment:

Average for a family run Italian bakery in Stamford will exceed 98% of what you can find in most places.

 

[August_West]

have you been to ricotta in new haven yet? it's a new-ish kosher bakery and pizza place downtown on chapel st. not sure about the pizza (i am not kosher and there is obviously plenty of other pizza to eat in new haven) but the bakery is really good.

my girlfriend's family is from the balkans and she introduced me to burek. i had the israeli version (bureka) here for the first time. crazy good.

kinda weird that a kosher bakery calls it self ricotta, but I will check it out.

 

[huskymedic]

Lucibellos.

I’m old school

^ Throw Rocco’s on Ferry Street in New Haven into the mix as well.

 

[UofCT]

Average at best

What did you have there that was average?

 

[karstenkibbe]

have you been to ricotta in new haven yet? it's a new-ish kosher bakery and pizza place downtown on chapel st. not sure about the pizza (i am not kosher and there is obviously plenty of other pizza to eat in new haven) but the bakery is really good.

my girlfriend's family is from the balkans and she introduced me to burek. i had the israeli version (bureka) here for the first time. crazy good.

They deliver to Stamford 2x/week to a central pickup point (as do many kosher restaurants in the NYC area). I eat non-kosher pizza, and a kosher-keeping home baker friend here has a custom Forza outdoor oven that gets up to 1600 degrees, so my expectations are high on the pizza front. I sampled a Ricotta pie (it had been in a box traveling down 95) and did not care for it. But I did stop at their Chapel St location (actually after a visit to Modern!) a few months ago. Agree with you that the burekas are amazing. My son and I crushed Israeli, Turkish and Georgian varieties. Also, great Shakshuka. Got some rugalach to go. Quite solid, but I’ve had better.

 

[cullaville]

Kibbe,

You think Beldotti is better than De Mare?

There was (until about 35-40 years ago) a very good German bakery on Cove Road (Kralich's) but sadly they are also gone.

Since the thread said ever, not current I was going to mention Kralich's in Stamford but you beat me to it.

 

[karstenkibbe]

kinda weird that a kosher bakery calls it self ricotta, but I will check it out.

Don’t get me started on kosher eatery naming strategies these days. As kosher cuisine has branched out from more traditional Eastern European and deli options over the last few decades, many try way too hard in an attempt to sound hip, ethnic or fancy. The names end up being unoriginal and boring.

 

[jibsey]

I think I can work with this!

 

[upstater]

Forget the name in New Haven. I lived in Waterbury. Every holiday my mom sent me to New Haven to pick up pastries for Easter and other holidays They only made these pastries on holidays. This was back in the late 60's early 70's. Honestly worth the drive. The bakery wasn't in the center of New Haven. You went through to the city a short distance.

Also, Helen's in Waterbury was a good vibe.

Probably Lucibello's already mentioned above

 

[karstenkibbe]

I think I can work with this!

Yes!!!! I’ve had that one. Insanely delicious. They don’t make it often. You will skip lunch after eating it.

 

[storrsroars]

I have never understood why anyone likes black & white cookies. Especially now when so many bakeries can pull off reasonable facsimiles of a Levain chocolate chip monster.

 

[upstater]

I've been to a bunch of donut places all over the USA, and so many people rave about the best donuts, but I've had nothing nearly as good as Coffee An' in Westport.

So airy and fluffy and warm inside, and this incredible thin crust on every donut. Don't know how they do it.

Yes, I've been to Neil's in Wallingford.

 

[jibsey]

I have never understood why anyone likes black & white cookies. Especially now when so many bakeries can pull off reasonable facsimiles of a Levain chocolate chip monster.

You probably never had a great one. They must be very fresh, baked that day with lots of icing. Even 1 day later ruins it and most out there are several days and weeks old in wrapping.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

I’m 53. I remember Kralich’s well. Fantastic. Also Karp’s Jewish bakery on Washington Blvd, next to the beautiful old church, just before UConn-Stamford campus. Cerbone’s (the predecessor to Beldotti in Newfield Green). Mario Cerbone was French-Italian and the breadth of his pastry skills was off the charts.

To answer your question… for custom cakes, DiMare every time. For the variety, DiMare also. BUT, if I want on-the-spot, hand-filled cannoli or Sfogliatella and Zeppole, I prefer Beldotti. Also, no bakery matches Beldotti for breads - Italian, French and Jewish. Their Friday/Saturday-only corn rye is not of this world. At the end of the day, I think it’s simply personal preference and can’t go wrong with either.

Totally forgot that DiMare did our wedding cake: chocolate with cannoli cream filling…I’m not a sweets guy but their cannoli cream is out of this world.

 

[huskyjawz]

Don’t get me started on kosher eatery naming strategies these days. As kosher cuisine has branched out from more traditional Eastern European and deli options over the last few decades, many try way too hard in an attempt to sound hip, ethnic or fancy. The names end up being unoriginal and boring.

Also Jewish or Kosher style.