Main Street Business Community Welcomes Palmieri's Bakery to the Family

Palmieri's Bakery on Main Street celebrated a ribbon cutting on Monday, marking the beginning of what owner Theresa Meresi hopes will be a long and successful run as a fixture in the East Greenwich small business community.

"It has been busy," Meresi, who opened the shop about three weeks ago in a soft opening, said. "There have been lots of happy people."

People have been stopping in to say hello, check out her dizzying — and mouth watering — array of pastries, cookies, cakes, snacks and other bakery items. And many other business owners along Main Street have come through to wish the new venture well.

"The business owners on Main Street are fantastic," Meresi said. "They really have made me feel welcome, to become a little part of the community here."

The new shop, located at 247 Main St., took a lot of effort to get ready. New floors, fresh paint and putting in the equipment and display cases is just a small part of the family effort.

Since opening, it has been a whirlwind, Meresi said, and she's still trying to iron out kinks and figure out exactly how the shop will run. Already, she's taken customer suggestions to heart and started selling pizza strips and other items based on what's needed on Main Street.

"There's nobody doing exactly what we're doing here," she said. "And there are things that people want that we didn't have at first. It's all about adapting, adjusting, figuring out the best way I can serve the community."

Palmieri's is a Rhode Island tradition dating back to 1898. The East Greenwich store joins locations on Ridge Street in Providence; Federal Hill and on Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence.

The new Palmieri's will combine the best of the other locations, Meresi said, with fresh bread baked at the Ridge Street location in Providence arriving daily and cafe food, pastries and coffee, in much the same style as Palmieri's on the Square in DePasquale Square on Federal Hill.

A bakery and a cafe, Palmieri's has eight tables for people to sip cappuccinos and enjoy crepes as well as get their daily bread, zeppoles for St. Joseph's Day, cupcakes, and all the other staples that had made Palmieri's a Rhode Island institution.

For hours and more info, head over to their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Palmierisbakery