Touch of Italy – Here they grow again

Touch of Italy Bakery at the Villages of Five Points is filling neighborhood air with the always-pleasant aroma of fresh baked goods.

The new bakery’s dedicated professionals mix high-quality ingredients in a state-of-the-art facility to produce a variety of some of the Cape Region’s tastiest baked goods. The bakery opened just before Fourth of July.

Business owners Bob Cipritti and Joe Curzi are producing tried-and-true Italian baked goods but they’re also willing to experiment with non-traditional items said Charlie Waltjen, Touch of Italy’s marketing-public relations manager and management team-member.

“Arthur Avenue in The Bronx is kind of the inspiration for us,” Waltjen said. Arthur Avenue is the hub of The Bronx’s Little Italy – the place in New York for Italian food and culture.

He said for now, the bakery is only producing three breads – semolina with or without sesame seeds; panna de cucina, an Old World-style round loaf that’s crunchy outside and soft inside; and olive bread. “Sizes will vary but we’re concentrating on those three types. We’ve tested focaccia and cibatta but first we wanted to iron-out Touch of Italy staples,” Waltjen said.

The bakery’s primary oven is a Forni, made in Italy and factory-installed by a craftsman who traveled from Italy to do the job.

“We can bake a little over 4,000 loaves an hour,” Waltjen said, adding they’re currently producing a few hundred loaves per day. “The room for growth is extremely large,” he said.

To ensure quality the company leaves nothing to chance. “We had a mineral expert come in and test the water to make sure our baking quality is what it needs to be,” Waltjen said.

Baked goods for all Touch of Italy stores are produced at Five Points where products are sold retail and wholesale.

The facility produces bread for Pete’s Steakhouse on Route 1 at the Rehoboth Marketplace shopping center. Touch of Italy breads and cookies are also sold at Tomato Sunshine; Milton, Rehoboth and Georgetown farmers’ markets; and Market on the Green at The Villages of Five Points.

Waltjen said the bakery is being careful about the number of wholesale customers it supplies because there’s only one production shift.

“We want to be 100 percent certain we meet our customer’s needs,” he said.

Baking experts

Bakery manager Denise Derosa supervises about a dozen employees. Her workday starts at 2 a.m.

“She works long hours to make sure the bakery is running at full-capacity and the cases are always filled. She ships out orders every day to our Lewes and Rehoboth stores,” Waltjen said.

Derosa said she loves her job. “I get paid to bake, play with food and be around people,” she said.

The bakery goes through several hundred pounds of extra-fancy semolina flour and more than 1,600 eggs a week, Derosa said.

Management team-member Mike Bernardinelli is now serving as head baker. Bernardinelli has expanded his Italian food-making skills after heading production of the company’s handmade mozzarella.

Waltjen said Italian bakers and cheese mongers who have more than three decades of experience in their crafts trained Bernardinelli in The Bronx. In turn, Bernardinelli is training bakers at Five Points.

“Once he gets that team up and going they’ll take that operation over so we can get him back on the management team,” he said.

Pastry chef Alexandra Wright trained at the Philadelphia Restaurant School, now The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College, and also Culinary Institute of America.

Wright turns out a variety of the bakery’s fancy items such as strawberry shortcake, Italian rum cake, fruit tarts, linzer tortes and chocolate-covered éclairs.

The store also sells 10 flavors of gelato, produced fresh in Rehoboth Beach by Gelato Gal. Beverages available at the bakery include espressos, cappuccinos, four coffee blends, iced tea, bottled water and Italian and regular sodas.

“Even though it says bakery, we want to expand into pre-made sandwiches at this location.  People see Touch of Italy and they expect the same things that are in the Second Street store in Lewes, so we’ll have some sandwiches in the case ready eat here or to-go,” Waltjen said.

Touch of Italy stores are at 101 Second Street, Lewes, and in Rehoboth Beach at 33A Baltimore Avenue and a kiosk at the north end of the Boardwalk adjacent to Stuart Kingston.

The company also plans to open a store and eatery in Shore Plaza on Route 1 near Nage, Waltjen said.

But if it’s baked goods you’re looking for, he said a visit to the Five Points store is a must. “You’re going to find two times as many options here that aren’t in the other stores,” Waltjen said.

Touch of Italy Bakery is at 33323 East Chesapeake St., The Villages of Five Points. Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, and closed Monday.

The bakery is open as late as 9:30 p.m., during scheduled events on the Village Green.

For additional information, call the bakery at 302-827-2132 or go to www.touchofitaly.com.