Famous NJ bakery, around since 1940s, closes for good
This is like a gut punch for some people. When an establishment has been around for 77 years, you just kind of assume they will always be there; that’s older than most of us. That’s multiple generations of loyalty.
When that place is a bakery, not only does it feel like they’d always be there, it also seems they were there for some of your life’s biggest and happiest moments. Birthday cakes, wedding cakes, graduation cakes; all those milestones.
Things won’t be the same in Jersey City. Monteleone’s Bakery stood in the Journal Square neighborhood like a favorite aunt or uncle. 741 Newark Avenue just went dark.
A Monteleone family member posted on a Jersey City Facebook group brought the sad news a few days ago stating, “Monteleone’s Bakery was started by my husband’s grandfather & has been family run for 77 years.
Sadly due to the challenges on small business today, as of August, we have closed our doors. Thank you to all our loyal customers for supporting us through the years.”
Here’s the more depressing part: it seemed temporary at first. Earlier in the summer, a sign had gone up on the bake shop saying they would be closing down only for a vacation, but would be reopening on August 2.
That date came and went and the business sat unopened. The neighborhood began talking and worrying. Now it’s confirmed. The economic realities and small business climate of New Jersey took down a titan.
They truly were a Jersey City legend, old school all the way.
Guido Monteleone came over from Sicily in 1909. After the First World War, he brought his family over; and with them opened the bakery in 1946. There was nothing they didn’t make, and throughout their entire run they made everything fresh using the same suppliers from Brooklyn.
When I say everything was made fresh, they even made their own cannoli shells.
They were most known for their special event cakes, and on any given Saturday averaged around 50 birthday cakes alone. If you were having a celebration in the Jersey City area, you were ordering from Monteleone’s.
Guido Monteleone passed away in 1959, and his grandsons Guido, Mark and Pete have ran it ever since. They stayed true to their old-fashioned ways of doing business right up until the end; and those are the words that sting, "the end".
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