What I Will Miss About Caputo Bakery

I had no clue that my heart would be broken on Monday. As I was strolling home on a lovely spring afternoon, I got a call from my friend Michele; I could immediately tell she was agitated. She told me she was “very upset” because she had just read a letter posted on the door of Caputo Bread Store that said it was permanently closed. I was incredulous. I told her that could not possibly be true. After all, this was a thriving business that has been around for 124 years. But by the time I had reached my corner, my friend Denise had texted me a picture of the letter. I was absolutely stunned. How could this be? And how could I break this news to my family? As I walked into the house, I could hardly convey what I had just heard to my husband. I asked my sister and my brother if they could figure out how to do a conference call so we could address the magnitude of what my son Matthew has referred to as “the saddest thing to happen to the neighborhood."

There is a popular proverb that says bread is the “staff of life” and Caputo Bake Shop has been a mainstay of daily life in Carroll Gardens for five generations, indeed many years before the neighborhood was known as Carroll Gardens. There were quite a few other great Italian bread stores, including Cammareri (of Moonstruck fame) and LaBarbera. But in recent years, we have been reduced to just two: Caputo and Mazzola. It is these types of old-time businesses that make Carroll Gardens such a special place to live in, a true neighborhood. I thank God for Mazzola, but I just don’t know how we are going to live without Caputo. I am not exaggerating when I say that this is a loss for all of us. The incredulity of that first day has now turned into lots and lots of long sighs and even some tears.

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When I was growing up, there were certain dishes that called for certain bread. So if my mom was making stew, we had to pick up a loaf of Sicilian bread. If we had zuppa di mussels, we had black pepper friselles. If there was a block party or a barbecue, we had to have a few loaves of Frank Sinatra bread. This type of thinking continues to this day. If I’m making beans and escarole, I first have to pick up whole wheat biscuits to crumble into the bottom of the bowl. If I’m making lentils, I like a nice crusty round loaf. Luckily, we could find all of these at Caputo.

There is no way that I can narrow down what I will miss about Caputo. It is where we got our Sunday bread, most of our daily bread, and all of our holiday bread. As my brother said, the only holiday for which we didn’t buy bread from Caputo is Chinese New Year. It was my son Gabe’s job to get on line early on Christmas Eve to pick up our biggest order, the bread for the most important meal of the year, the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

These are just some of the things I’m going to miss: the seeded Italian loaf (our family's go-to), the perfectly extra crispy seeded twist, the semolina fishtail, the rolls with the cuts, the lard bread (but especially the braided ring available only for Easter), the sweet Easter bread, the fully loaded olive bread, the golden raisin-fennel- semolina rolls, the multi-grain pullman loaf, the salted fougasse, and the epee.

I’m going to miss sweet Pat and Cece (who was always so excited to tell you the newest delicious addition, “baby”) and all the young kids behind the counter. I’m going to miss thinking of my mom every single time I walked in there; she worked behind the counter at Caputo’s for many years. I’m going to miss picking up my Easter bread order and catching up with James Caputo amid the chaos of Holy Saturday afternoon (even though I already had a million unfinished things to do) and sometimes being lucky enough to see his dad John. I am going to miss the next new thing introduced by the excellent baker, Youssouff, from the Ivory Coast who in recent years had expanded Caputo’s offerings to include French breads, croissants, babka, challah, and bialys. I’m going to miss Joey, always working so hard in the back. I’m going to miss going into that warm bakery on a wintry day. And I’m going to miss being able to see all those beautiful loaves of bread in the window, 363 days a year.

Whenever my brother comes in from New Jersey, he always stocks up on bread to bring home and also brings me a loaf of lard bread. I always say, "Frankie, why are you buying me bread? I can get it anytime." Oh, how I wish I had a few loaves in my freezer right now.

According to James, this was a personal decision; it had proven to be the most demanding of businesses. He said he has already gotten some offers. While my entire family and most of the neighborhood are bereft right now, I will be hoping and fervently praying that someone will soon take over for the Caputo family and start baking some of the best bread in the world again.