The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Customers flood reopened Cheri’s Bakery
BRANFORD — Cheri Gargano, co-owner of Cheri’s Bakery, barely had a moment to chat between waiting on the constant flow of customers and saying hello to regulars on a recent Wednesday.
The family-run bakeshop, which has a long loyal following, reopened last week after being shuttered for more than three years after closing during COVID.
Now, its familiar sign, the shop’s name in bright red cursive, adorns its new location in the center of town at 1208 Main St.
“We sold out — everything,” she said of the opening on Feb. 28.
Cheri’s, which originally opened in 1998 on East Main Street, specializes in Italian pastries and baked goods.
The rush continued the first week, with the bakery closing early every day after running out of inventory.
“We had hundreds of customers today,” she said during the recent morning rush, as the remaining trays of pastries were thinning.
Gargano’s husband, Patrick, the baker in the family, was caught by surprise too. Working off their old business model, he thought doubling their inventory for opening day would be enough.
“We could have done five times the amount,” he said. “I thought, OK next day it won’t be so bad. It was worse. It just kept building and building.”
The family had decided to revive the business, Cheri Gargano said, because a lot of people had asked when they were reopening.
“We just kind of went for it,” she said. “Let’s just do it.”
The closing during the pandemic was a sad time, especially for her husband.
“It was hard for him,” Cheri Gargano said. The Garganos decided not to renew the lease when the business was down to one counterperson who was leaving after the holidays in 2020 and they couldn’t find help.
“After Thanksgiving we just closed the doors,” Patrick Gargano remembered.
Now they have big plans and eventually want to open more Cheri’s Bakery storefronts in other towns. All the baking is done at a commercial kitchen in the former Denali building in Old Saybrook.
The business is truly all in the family. Gargano’s husband logs 90 hours a week baking with their son Patrick, Jr., who coowns and works in the Branford store.
The couple’s other two sons are also in the restaurant business. Justin Gargano owns Thimble Islands Brewery & Brew Pub in Branford and is opening a second one in Old Saybrook soon, sharing the kitchen there with his father. Son Joel and his wife Lani Gargano own Gran Arso’s Restaurant in Chester.
When Cheri’s closed, Patrick Gargano continued baking for their other eateries.
“I love baking,” he said. “This industry, if you don’t love it, you can’t do it.”
Patrick Gargano, who has been baking for 50 years, got his start at a beloved Italian bakery in town while a teenager.
“Castellon’s Bakery taught Patrick how to bake,” his wife said. “So we owe a lot of our success to Castellon’s Bakery. They helped us get open.”
The historic Castellon Brothers Bakery and Delicatessen was destroyed in the Branford Main Street fire in in 1998. Cheri’s opened soon after.
Patrick Gargano remembered the old days at Castellon’s when he was a teen.
“I was a troubled kid and they gave me something to learn and I just fell in love with it,” he said. “I was frying donuts when I was 14 years old.”
The young teen was so short, he stood on a metal milk crate so he could reach the fryolator, he recalled.
“My friends and me would go out at night and I would say ‘OK it’s 10 o’clock drop me off at the bakery,’ ” he said of his time as a teen there. “I used to go in there on a Friday and Saturday night for three or four hours, not for pay — just to learn. I wanted to learn this trade.”
The baking business has changed over the years, Patrick Gargano said.
“You don’t see a lot of our style bakeries left anymore because they’re too hard to run, there’s too many things to know,” he said, noting that there are many specialty bake shops.
“Somebody just does cupcakes or cakes or just donuts,” he said.
At the new storefront, longtime customer Delores Scelzo, of East Haven, said she was happily surprised Cheri’s reopened, just in time to put her Easter orders in.
“I think it’s wonderful, I’ve been waiting years for this — not that I thought it was going to happen,” she said with a laugh.
Scelzo came in for the zeppoles, custard-filled Italian donuts and rice pies, an Italian Easter specialty.
Other popular traditional Italian Easter pies, include a hefty 7pound ham pie and wheat and ricotta pies.
“I am overwhelmed by the positive responses that we’ve had,” Cheri Gargano said. “It’s overwhelming, we are shocked. We thought maybe people forgot about us.”