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 baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, Pastry, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as Coffeehouse, cafés, servi ...

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the ...

, owned by

Buddy Valastro Bartolo "Buddy" Valastro Jr. (born March 3, 1977) is an American baker, reality television personality, and businessman. He has taken his small, family-owned bake shop, Carlo's Bake Shop, Carlo's Bakery, and turned it into a baking and restauran ...

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

''.

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, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

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 ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

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 List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

. Carlo's Bakery has leased space at the complex, which is used for additional space to make specialty cakes, as well as the ability to make

baked goods Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot Baking stone, stones. Bread is the most commonly baked item, but many other types of food can also be baked. Heat is ...

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 exhib ...

at 226 West 44th Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

. This location offers Carlo's Bakery's smaller baked goods, as well as bakery and ''Cake Boss'' merchandise. On February 10, 2013, the Bakery opened its first full-range branch location in

Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood is a Village (New Jersey), village in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Ridgewood is a suburban commuter town, bedroom community of New York City, located approximately northwest of Midtown M ...

.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. On September 1, 2013, the Bakery opened its third bakery location in

Westfield, New Jersey Westfield is a Town (New Jersey), town in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 31,032, an increase of 716 (+2.4% ...

. The next bakery opened on November 23, 2013, in

Red Bank, New Jersey Red Bank is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. 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 metro ...

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

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

Hudson County Hudson County is a List of counties in New Jersey, county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, its smallest and most densely populated. Lying in the northeast of the state and on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River, the No ...

's 50 most influential people. On March 20, 2014, Carlo's opened a location in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a Town (New Jersey), town in and the county seat of Morris County, New Jersey, 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. 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 mall feat ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. 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, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Home to William Paterson University and located less than from Midtown Manhattan, the township is a bedroom suburb of New ...

. 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 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

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

RecordTV Record (stylized in uppercase; ), formerly known as Rede Record and RecordTV, 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 ...

reality television competition series ''

Batalha dos Confeiteiros ''Batalha dos Confeiteiros'' ( English: ''Battle of the Bakers'') is a Brazilian television series based on ''Next Great Baker'', hosted by Buddy Valastro, the star of his own reality series, ''Cake Boss''. The series premiered Wednesday, 30 Septe ...

''. 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. In January 2019, a spokesperson for Carlo's Bakery confirmed that the Morristown and Ridgewood locations for closed in recent weeks.

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 40.73715, -74.03078, format=dms, type:landmark_region:US-NJ, display=title Bakeries of New Jersey 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