In August, Di Lauro's Bakery ran out of the flour it had always used, and the bread came out of the ovens flat. The timing was bad. The New York State Fair was about to open and customers needed bread. The overnight bakers at the North Side shop had been there between 18 and 25 years, and some of them stayed past their shifts and came in on their days off to fix it.
Anthony Mondello watched all of this happen. He had already sent a letter of intent to buy the bakery, but nothing was signed yet. He could have backed out, and he didn't. As longtime owner Paul Waverchak told syracuse.com, "That's what told me he was the right guy."
The sale took effect Oct. 1. Di Lauro's now has its first owner from outside the family since 1908, and the handoff was set up so a regular buying a loaf this week would hardly notice.
What the flour fix shows about the bread
The flour that ran out was bromated, meaning it contained potassium bromate, an additive that helps dough rise and keep its shape. When the bakers moved to a new flour, the loaves wouldn't hold. They solved it by adding an organic ingredient to the new flour and changing their process. Waverchak says the bread rises properly again, and he thinks it tastes a little better than before.
This matters for anyone wondering whether new ownership will change the bread. The method that makes the bread taste the way it does belongs to the bakers, and the bakers are staying. Their standard was tested a month before the sale closed, and they treated flat bread as something to fix even if it took their days off. Mondello said the experience reassured him too. He saw a crew that refused to sell bread they wouldn't buy themselves.
The core process goes back to Frank Di Lauro, who taught it to Waverchak. Mix the dough, then let it rise slowly for three hours before shaping it into Italian loaves, rolls and pizza shells.
A sale built to be quiet
Mondello wasn't new to Di Lauro's. His family stopped there on Sundays for bread, pizza and delunas. Years later, when his daughters had pitching lessons in East Syracuse, the bakery was the stop on the way home. He spent more than two decades at a large retail pharmacy company before deciding he wanted his own business. He heard from his sister-in-law that Waverchak might sell, and the two men met for coffee on a Monday, then on several more Mondays after that.
Waverchak hadn't advertised the business. About five serious inquiries had come in over the past six years, and none of them felt right. Mondello submitted his letter of intent in July, and the deal closed Sept. 30.
Here is what stayed the same:
- The address. The bakery is still at 501 E. Division St. on Syracuse's North Side.
- The bakers. The overnight crew is still working.
- The previous owner. Waverchak, who bought the business from his father-in-law in 1980, still works in the 1,200-square-foot shop.
- The approach. Mondello says he is learning how everything is made before he considers changing much.
Waverchak summed up the change to syracuse.com this way: "The only difference here is that he's the one that's going to sign the checks and take the phone call." Mondello now arrives between 4:30 and 5 a.m. and usually stays until 6 or 6:30 p.m. He also checks in with the overnight bakers several times a week.
The dough reaches more tables than the shop does
The bakery's careful handling of its dough makes more sense once you know how much of it leaves the building. On a typical night, Waverchak estimated, the bakers work through roughly 1,200 pounds of dough. Di Lauro's fills daily standing orders for about 20 to 30 businesses, plus occasional orders and whatever comes in by phone.
The shop is small, but its Italian loaves and rolls show up on family dinner tables and in restaurants across Central New York, often without the customer knowing where the bread came from. Because so much of the business is wholesale, flat bread in August was more than a counter problem. It would have reached every kitchen with a standing order.
The bakery began with an unusual piece of luck. According to the family's history, John Di Lauro opened it in February 1908 after rescuing a girl who had fallen through the ice near Cazenovia Lake. Her father rewarded him, and he used the money to start what was first called Venezia Bakery. His sons Frank and Nick later bought the business. Waverchak joined after he became engaged to Frank's daughter, Valerie.
The one new item, and where it came from
Mondello has a few changes in mind: more social media, possibly better ordering technology, and ideas from customers. One customer idea is already for sale.
Syracuse firefighters asked whether the bakery made breakfast delunas. The staff tried a version filled with eggs, bacon and cheese, and it has been on sale daily since.
The idea fits what the bakery already makes. Di Lauro's has long used its dough for a breakfast pizza topped with eggs, sausage, bacon, ham and cheese, which syracuse.com described as a morning favorite for generations. The new deluna takes that combination and puts it in the folded format the bakery already sells with sausage, pepperoni, spinach, broccoli, mushroom, or sausage, pepper and onion.
So far, then, the first change under new ownership was a request from people who were already buying there, made with the same dough.
Planning the holiday table around it
Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, Nov. 26, three Thursdays from now. Bread is one of the few parts of the meal you can hand off completely. Last December, syracuse.com's Christmas bread roundup called Di Lauro's "the bakery many North Side families never stopped going to." It described the Italian loaf as dependable and made for passing around the table, and suggested picking up a bag of rolls while you're there.
The bakery's own catalog covers more than a holiday table needs:
| For the meal | What Di Lauro's lists |
|---|---|
| The bread basket | Italian and pan bread, mini bread, French bread, several kinds of rolls |
| Stuffing and casseroles | Bread crumbs |
| A second loaf | Focaccia, cinnamon-raisin bread, deli varieties |
| The night before or the weekend after | Pizza shells from 9 inches up to sheet size, dough, whole pizzas, delunas, calzones |
Phone orders are a regular part of the bakery's day, alongside its standing wholesale orders. The number is 315-471-0519. The bakery's website lists hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. With a holiday coming and a new owner on the phone, call to confirm holiday hours and order timing before you plan a pickup around them.
If you're going on a weekday morning anyway, the breakfast deluna is the new item. The loaves on the shelf beside it come from the same three-hour rise the bakery has used for generations, made by bakers who worked through August to keep it that way. Mondello put his reason for buying simply: "Why would I leave? This place is an institution."
Bakeries like Di Lauro's, and the overnight crews behind them, are much of what makes a Syracuse neighborhood feel like home. That's the local knowledge Robert Zaccaria brings to every conversation about the city's neighborhoods. If the North Side or anywhere else in Syracuse is on your mind, Let's Connect, over coffee and maybe a breakfast deluna.
