By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews
ROCHESTER — Deanna Gualtieri said she considers customers at her new business, Gualtieri’s Bakery, to be “family.”
“In the Italian culture, family is a big thing; so anybody that walks through that door, we consider them family,” she said.
The Fulton County Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting for the bakery on Friday, May 10. It’s located at 420 E. Ninth St., Rochester.
The bakery had a soft opening on April 20, with a regular opening on April 23.
The business references Deanna’s husband Chris Gualtieri’s Italian heritage by selling pasta, pasta sauce, candies and chocolates from Italy in addition to baked goods.
The latter include sourdough bread, cookies, cannolis, cakes and croissants. Customers may stop in from 6 a.m. to noon Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Deanna said orders are also accepted.
“We do special order cakes and cupcakes and cookie orders,” she said. “I have a girl who does all of our custom orders … and then I help out with that.”
Deanna said Chris’ sister got her baking bread, and “it’s kind of … our little bond that we have.”
“It’s fun and it’s exciting to watch three ingredients turn into something that’s delicious,” said Deanna.
Chris and the couple’s son help at the bakery, with Deanna also having three employees.
She’s been baking for quite some time at her home “as a side hustle.” It was a job change last year, which finally got her to open her own bakery.
Deanna said she was grateful for the community support for the bakery so far and noted she wanted to provide a welcoming atmosphere.
“Once they are a customer of ours, they belong here, so we want to make everybody feel very welcome,” she said. “We never want to sell anything that’s not acceptable, but making somebody feel comfortable comes first. Because if you walk into a place, it doesn’t matter how good the product is. If you don’t feel comfortable walking in, you’re not going to come back, so we want to make sure everybody has that comfort level with us.”
