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Palombo’s Pastry Shops offers many Italian pastries and delicacies from original recipes that date back to the 1800’s.
Story and photos by Rebecca Ellis
Some time-tested habits don’t die, especially the edible kind.
And so it is with what has proven itself a longstanding tradition for pastry lovers in the Bronx and northern Manhattan.
Palombo’s Pastry Shop on Riverdale Avenue at 238th Street invites visitors into a comfortable, cheerfully decorated atmosphere. The café serves specialty Italian pastries and sweets, everything from cannelloni to chocolate mousse cake, and many of the recipes date back to the 1800’s.
Like the other locations, the Riverdale store has attracted regular clientele and newcomers alike, with sales, naturally, up for the holidays.
The shop is spacious and inviting. It has a bright décor, yellow walls, and a classic wooden staircase leading up to the second level, where patrons can sit and enjoy a full view of the street below while lounging in deep brown leather chairs. Unobtrusive holiday decorations line the stairs, and flowers and plants are placed throughout the locale. Most captivating are the three chandelier lamps dotting a slightly rounded ceiling, painted blue with white clouds, in a nod to Michelangelo’s dome.
Vanilla and chocolate cannelloni, as well as a display of cakes and tarts greet customers behind enticing displays. The cannelloni have a light, flaky crust, with a hint of cinnamon, and are filled with heavy cream.
The chocolate mousse cake appears sinful to the weight-watching eye.
“After trying the cannelloni, I had to come back,” said Debbie Rosenberg, 54, a regular customer. “It’s almost a staple. They are so good, they should be illegal!”
A Riverdale native, Rosenberg was born and raised in the neighborhood. She brought her companion, Fritz Capria, 51, who also lives nearby and frequents Palombo’s.
“What attracted me to the café is that these pastries are better than a lot of the pastries around here,” Rosenberg said. “But don’t get me wrong. I still like a good rugelach.”
She explained that she and Capria like to take pignoli cookies home to accompany the fresh-whipped cappuccinos that Capria – a “recovered waiter,” according to Rosenberg – likes to make at home on his espresso machine.
“It’s a heritage issue for me,” Capria, an Italian-American, says.
Paul Palombo, the owner of says that there is no secret to the centuries-old recipes that customers come to all the locations to enjoy.
“I may give you my recipe, but it doesn’t mean it will taste like mine,” said Palombo. “It’s just like in baseball. You can learn the rules of the game but it doesn’t mean you can play it.”
He says that they have introduced new items as well, such as the lobster tail, tubes made out of flaky dough and bursting with cream, as well as brought the famous Italian tiramisu dessert to the States “35 years before people knew about it here.”
Palombo referred to the store’s flyer, which says that the pastry shops have outlasted two world wars, the Titanic, and the Great Depression.
“117 years is a long time,” said Palombo, 67, owner, referring to the first shop his grandfather opened in the town of Cassino, Italy, between Naples and Rome, in 1897.
The first American shop opened in 1912 on 187th Street in the Bronx. Forty years later, Palombo came to the U.S. with his family when he was 13 years old. They were supposed to leave on the infamous Andrea Doria, which sank in Nantucket, but fortunately for the Palombos, the boy caught an eye infection, forcing the family to leave on next month’s ship.
Palombo’s cafes also serve coffee, the traditional Italian way.
“We were making espressos, lattes, and cappuccinos ninety years before Starbucks!” exclaims Palombo.
And customers seem to agree that the traditions kept at Palombo’s are precisely what keep them loyal too.
“Those cannelloni are so darn light,” said Capria said as he picked up his bag of cookies and headed out the door. "Everything is home–made and fresh.”
Palombo’s Pastry Shops
2043 Bartow Avenue, The Bronx, NY 10475, 718.862.2700
3700 Riverdale Avenue, The Bronx, New York 10463, 718.549.5500
601 East 187th Street, The Bronx, NY 10458, 718.329.8800
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