The Bakery Opens its Doors on the Berlin Turnpike
By David Huck | Correspondent at December 24, 2023 | 8:00 am | Print
The grandson of the founder of Sanremo Bakery has decided to carry on his family’s legacy with the recent opening of a bakery and pastry shop on the Berlin Turnpike.
Enzo Formica, the owner of The Bakery, located at 226 Berlin Turnpike, recalls working alongside his grandfather, Paolo Motta when he was 3-years-old.
Formica’s first tasks in the kitchen as a young child involved preparing bread and making sweets like almond cookies.
“Whenever I got out of school, it was working there and helping—just constantly,” Formica said. “It was something I enjoyed doing.”
Motta started the bakery in Berlin in 1982 and when he died in 1991 he left the business for Formica’s uncle—Santo—who continues to operate the bakery as a wholesale operation, supplying bread for places like Joey Garlic’s and Salute Restaurant.
All the recipes he learned from his grandfather are in his head, he says. He works by intuition, knowing exactly when to add a pinch of salt or how much corn meal coating is needed for the bottom layer of the bread. “I think if they were written down, someone would snatch them,” Formica said of the recipes that have been passed on over several generations.
The Bakery opened it’s doors a week before Christmas and visitors from places like Old Saybrook, Newington, Rocky Hill, and Berlin have been steadily buying up his cannoli, pastries, and cookie trays. He also sells fresh baked bread, cakes, and pies.
Formica worked as a truck driver for a while but the draw of the bakery kept pulling him back to his roots. He grew up in New Britain but now lives in Southington with his children and wife.
“I have been working in Sanremo Bakery all my life, so I am taking this opportunity to open The Bakery so that residents of Berlin and the central Connecticut area can again enjoy the bread, turnovers, pastries, pies, and other speciality items that they have been purchasing at Sanremo Bakery for these many years,” Formica said.
While Formica stays true to Italian classics, he says he plans to offer a variety of twists on old favorites. Some of the cannoli flavors he has developed include pumpkin spice, banana cream with graham cracker sprinkles, butter pecan, tiramisu, and mint. “I think this is going to be a hot cannoli spot,” he said. “I must have gotten rid of a few hundred cannoli already in the three or four days I’ve been open.”
More than four decades ago, Formica’s grandfather and brothers immigrated from Sicily and started opening bakeries in the area, including Giovanni’s and shops in Columbia and Hartford.
“My whole family has owned bakeries forever,” Formica said.
Formica calls himself a “pizza connoisseur” and says that once he installs more equipment beginning in early 2015 he will offer Sicilian-style pizza, aracini, stuffed breads, grinders, and more. The Bakery also does speciality orders for things like wedding and birthday cakes.
Mayor Rachel Rochette was on hand with other town officials on Dec. 22 for a ribbon cutting ceremony. Fresh ricotta- and banana cream-filled cannoli were passed around. Rochette wished Formica success in his new venture.
“Many citizens have commented to me that they missed Sanremo’s Bakery and wished for a new local retail bakery in Berlin,” Rochette said. “This is like a holiday present for the town, not only are we getting a new bakery, bit it also has the familiar products that we have enjoyed for many years.”
Business so far has been excellent, Formica said. “It’s been taking off like crazy,” he said. “I guess it was the right time to open—right before the holidays.”
The bakery also has a table and chairs inside where customers can enjoy their fresh pastries along with espresso-based drinks and coffee.
To find out more about the bakery, visit their Facebook page “The Bakery LLC.” They are open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
