Carlo's Bake Shop, commonly known as Carlo's Bakery and also known as Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop, is a

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who ...

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

, owned by

Buddy Valastro Bartolo "Buddy" Valastro Jr. (born March 3, 1977) is an American baker and reality television personality of Italian heritage. He is the owner of Carlo's Bakery, as well as the face of Buddy V's Ristorante. Valastro is best known as the star of ...

. The bakery has gained public attention as the setting of the

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

television series, ''

Cake Boss ''Cake Boss'' is an American reality television series, which originally aired on the cable television network TLC. The series premiered on April 19, 2009, and has spawned four spin-offs: ''Next Great Baker'', ''Kitchen Boss'', ''Bake You Rich' ...

''.

History

In 1910, Carlo's Bakery was founded by

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

pastry chef Carlo Guastaferro, and in 1964, it was purchased by Bartolo "Buddy" Valastro Sr. Valastro's son

currently runs the bakery, with help from his four older sisters, three brothers-in-law, and other assorted family members and friends. One notable employee was Sal Picinich, who began working at the bakery shortly after the Valastro family purchased it, and continued until his death on January 30, 2011. The bakery rose to fame with ''

'', a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series that premiered on

in April 2009, depicting the staff of the shop creating elaborate custom-order novelty cakes. As a result, the shop became a tourist attraction, and a key institution in Hoboken and Hudson County. As a result of the popularity of ''Cake Boss'', Carlo's Bakery built a new factory at Lackawanna Center, a mixed industrial-retail complex in nearby

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.baked goods Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred " ...

for shipment across the country. Because of the limited space at the Hoboken location, Carlo's Bakery was unable to ship cakes beyond normal driving distance from the bakery; the bakery had conducted a limited trial Internet sale of pies in October 2009, to test the viability of selling baked goods on the Internet. On May 24, 2011, Carlo's Bakery opened its first branch location, Cake Boss Cafe, at the

Discovery Times Square Exposition Discovery Times Square (also known as Discovery TSX) was an exhibition space at 226 West 44th Street in New York City that opened June 24, 2009 and closed in September 2016. It specialized in traveling exhibitions with 60,000 square feet of exhibit ...

at 226 West 44th Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

. This location offers Carlo's Bakery's smaller baked goods, as well as bakery and ''Cake Boss'' merchandise.Huff, Richard (May 10, 2011)
"'Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro expands with Cake Boss Cafe in Times Square, new show 'Next Great Baker'"
'' Daily News'' (New York City). On February 10, 2013, the Bakery opened its first full-range branch location in

Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,McGrath, Matthew (February 10, 2013)
Boss opens a shop in Ridgewood and lines follow.html "'Cake Boss' opens a shop in Ridgewood, and lines follow"

NorthJersey.com North Jersey Media Group is a newspaper publishing company headquartered in Woodland Park, New Jersey and owned by the Gannett Company, Inc. It publishes ''The Record'', the ''Herald News'' of Passaic County, the ''Daily Record'' of Morris County ...

.Makin, Cheryl (September 1, 2013)
"Westfield Opening"
MyCentralJersey.com. On September 1, 2013, the Bakery opened its third bakery location in

Westfield, New Jersey Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 30,316,Red Bank, New Jersey Red Bank is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. Incorporated in 1908, the community is on the Navesink River, the area's original transportation route to the ocean and other ports. Red Bank is in the New York Metropolitan A ...

. In January 2012, as a result of the attention brought to the city of Hoboken by the shop and the TV series, the ''

Hudson Reporter ''The Hudson Reporter'' is a newspaper chain based in Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Hudson Reporter'' publications mainly focus on local politics and community news. The oldest newspaper in the chain is the '' Hoboken Reporter'', founded in 1983 ...

'' named Buddy Valastro Jr. as an honorable mention in its list of

Hudson County Hudson County is the most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in ...

's 50 most influential people.Spahr, Rob. (September 27, 2013)
"Cake Boss' opening new bakery in Red Bank"

NJ.com NJ.com is a digital news content provider and website in New Jersey owned by Advance Publications. According to a report in ''The New York Times'' in 2012, it was the largest provider of digital news in the state at the time. In 2018, comScore r ...

. On March 20, 2014, Carlo's opened a location in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

. and on March 31, one in The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, the company's first on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

.Brittany Brussell (May 21, 2014)
"Carlo's Bakery Feels Like Something Special"
''

Las Vegas Weekly ''Las Vegas Weekly'' is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Henderson, Nevada, covering Las Vegas arts, entertainment, culture and news. ''Las Vegas Weekly'' is published by Greenspun Media Group. The paper was founded in 1992 by James P ...

''. Retrieved September 23, 2014. On December 5, 2015, Carlo's Bakery opened a location at

The Florida Mall The Florida Mall is a super regional enclosed shopping mall located south of Orlando in unincorporated Orange County, Florida, United States, on the southeast corner of Orange Blossom Trail and Sand Lake Road; it opened in 1986. The facility wa ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. On November 10, 2016, Carlo's opened a kiosk in Willowbrook Mall, in

Wayne, New Jersey Wayne is a Township (New Jersey), township in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. Home to William Paterson University and located less than from Midtown Manhattan, the township is a bedroom suburb of New York ...

. Other New Jersey locations include Marlton and Westfield. A month later on December 8, Carlo's opened a location in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, the company's first bakery outside the United States. Managed by Rick Zavala, the winner of the

RecordTV RecordTV (), formerly known as Rede Record, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network. It is currently the second largest commercial TV station in Brazil, and the 28th largest in the 2012 world ranking. In 2010, it was elected by the adverti ...

reality television competition series '' Batalha dos Confeiteiros''. On August 1, 2018, the Red Bank, New Jersey store closed after the lease expired. A spokesperson for the company announced that the company sought to create a different kind of dining experience similar to the location in Texas, for which the Red Bank location was not appropriate. The other five Carlo's Bakery locations in New Jersey remained open.

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 40.73715, -74.03078, format=dms, type:landmark_region:US-NJ, display=title Bakeries of the United States Buildings and structures in Hoboken, New Jersey Cake Boss Companies based in Hudson County, New Jersey American companies established in 1910 Food and drink companies established in 1910 Retail companies established in 1910 Tourist attractions in Hudson County, New Jersey