By Carmine Santa Maria
I love to eat, which is fairly obvious. Oddly enough, my weight gain is based on starch. You know…macaroni, bread, pasta, bread, spaghetti, bread, ravioli, bread, pretzels, pizza, bread, potatoes, and all gummy type candy. That’s why, when I go on the Atkins Diet, I lose weight quickly. I avoid all carbohydrates and that’s what all my favorites are stacked with. I should have prefaced that statement by saying, when I stay on my diet, I lose weight quickly. Not that it stays off, because as soon as the bread and spaghetti come back in full force, I’m in full figure. If I can get through a week and weekend staying on the Atkins Diet, then I usually stay on it until temptation knocks me off it. On that note, I feel like Humpty Dumpty a lot. Well that’s what happened last Friday, I started my diet Monday, and on Friday I learned that the next day we were going to have pizza at my daughter’s house after my granddaughter Alexa’s performance in “The Sound of Music.” Alexa had about two dozen cousins, uncles, aunts and two sets of grandparents coming to see her play Marta in the musical. Not because she’s my granddaughter, but Julie Andrews should have had Alexa in the movie. She was made for the part. Enough said, otherwise I’ll do the whole column on Alexa and you know grandpas. Let’s go back to my diet and how I broke it. Knowing that I would be breaking my diet the next day, there was no point staying on the diet that Friday and I drove directly to Angelo’s Royal Pastry Shop on 86th Street and 25th Avenue to buy a cruller. I love Angelo’s crullers, buns, rolls, cookies and lots of stuff they bake. To tell the truth I’m not a big cake eater, but you try to sit in that bakery shop, full of the most mouth-watering looking cakes and goodies you ever saw, without wanting to taste everything in sight…especially the pastries. Angelo’s Royal Pastry Shop has a small café within and whoever comes to have an espresso, cappuccino or coffee indulges in a pastry or whatever else catches their eye. And there are hundreds of cakes and biscuits to choose from. The shop is famous for its cream cheese cake, its tiramisu, tropical fruit pies and the most delicious pastries anywhere. You cannot resist them. With the pretense that I had to deliver a journal from the Bensonhurst West End Community Council (BWECC) that had their congratulatory ad in it, I parked the car at the nearest meter, which was a clear sign that I was doing the right thing…you know how parking is on 86th Street? I walked into the shop, just as Mary the co-owner was walking in. She smiled and immediately said hello. Mary knows most of her customers by name and that’s a lot of customers to remember, considering that they’ve been at that location going on 47 years. Mary and her husband, Emilio, have owned Angelo’s Royal Pastry Shop for 50 years, originally opening up on West 8th Street and Avenue T, then moving to its current location after three years. Angelo, for whom the pastry shop is named, was 90 years old when he passed away last year and you would always find him behind the ices and coffee counter. Like all dutiful Italian sons, Emilio named the family business after his father. The business is family run, with Emilio and Mary calling the shots and their children and even some grandchildren lending a hand when need be, especially on holidays and weekends. Son Anthony, who is responsible for bringing lobster tails into the country from Rome in 1980, helps his father and mother supervise the bakery and business on a daily basis. For those of you who are not familiar with Italian pastry, a lobster tail is a Sfoglitelle shell full of Bavarian or French cream and it became an instant hit, with many bakeries copying it. Anthony is on Community Board 11 and involved with the community. Mary introduced me to him and she acknowledged the work of the community council and that’s when Anthony brought to me the problem of trucks getting stuck under the elevated line. It seems that although he’s brought the constant problem to CB 11 for the past three years, nothing could be done, because the Department of Transportation and the MTA kept passing the buck to each other. I invited him to a BWECC meeting and told him to present the problem there and I told him to get Assemblyman William Colton involved. I called Assemblyman Colton and asked him to meet me at the pastry shop at 3 p.m. to discuss the situation with Anthony. Anthony had to leave to pick up his son from school, so I waited all afternoon in the pastry shop/café/bakery…HEAVEN, inhaling all the scintillating fragrances of the tantalizing goodies, just sitting there, having an espresso, enjoying my diet-breaking cruller. Every so often, a baker would come out with a beautiful, delicious-looking cake to place in the show window. Every so often, a couple would come in to relax and enjoy a café and pastry. Every so often Lafayette students would come in to buy something to take home or eat on the train. A young African-American couple came in to do just that and the gentleman said “Man, I love this bakery, the smells make you hungry.” While we were waiting for the assemblyman to come, we were interrupted by a lady who wanted to order a cake for her granddaughter’s birthday party. The cake had to come from Angelo’s’…that was the granddaughter’s absolute order, so Grandma has to travel the trains to get there. And as I sat there in the café, I notice how very cosmopolitan the customers were. Although the neighborhood was changing, Angelo’s Royal Pastry Shop was drawing the new homeowners as well as their steadfast Italian clientele. That’s why on weekends and holidays, the shop has to call on its “weekend warriors,” the rest of the family that comes in to help to handle the hordes of Italian customers that must have Angelo’s Pastries for desert. Mary and Emilio have two sons, Angelo and Anthony, and a daughter, Mary Theresa, and eight grandchildren. They bake from 8 am to 9 pm, creating the most delicious and appetizing cakes, pies, pastries, cookies, bread, buns and biscuits, dedicating their love to their customers. Sitting there chatting with Anthony, I learned that the family has ballroom dance champions in their number including Emilio, his son-in-law Martin and 14-year-old grandson Cole, who competes world wide. It was Emilio, not his father, who brought the family into pastry-making, after arriving from Lazio, the Province of Latina near Rome, having earned his apprenticeships at D’Amico Bakery and then Alba’s, until he opened Angelo’s Royal Pastry Shop. So we’re lucky to still have this dynasty of Pastry makers with us, serving us the most delicious cake and zillions of calories, and we’re lucky that there are grandchildren learning the family business and recipes. Anthony was raised in the bakery and is a master baker like his father. When Assemblyman Colton came, he also was in awe of the array of cakes and pastries available. Anthony explained the situation of the 86th Street El and Assemblyman Colton agreed that something must be done and soon! So if you you’re in the neighborhood of 2482 86th Street, and want a lift, go into Angelo’s Royal Pastry Shop and then enjoy the atmosphere of its newly re-decorated café and pastry shop. Enjoy a cappuccino or espresso, gelato, spumoni or ices, and I defy you to leave the shop without taking home some pastries or cake. Screech at you next week!
