Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop Ranked In Top 50 Best Bakeries In America

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Our area is blessed with many wonderful restaurants, but did you know that one has been singled out for special praise?

In fact, as Mike Schuh reports, a Baltimore landmark is now listed as one of the best bakeries in the country.

In the heart of Little Italy, sits a landmark, a place where people buy cannolis by the boxful. Not just cannolis...Vaccaro's makes -- not buys -- more than 60 different treats. They are all from a place started in 1956 by Jimmy Vaccaro.

"This is our cannoli recipe Mr. Jimmy brought back with him from Palermo, Italy," said Maria Vaccaro.

The bakery makes cannolis, cookies, and of note, rum cake.

"Three layers of Italian sponge cake, the bottom two soaked in rumba, then chocolate and vanilla custard and almonds around the edge," said Maria Vaccaro, describing the rum cake.

The rum cake was singled out by a food website, which declared Vaccaro's a winner!

"Out of 6,000 bakeries in the nation, they narrowed it down and we are on the top 50 list," Maria Vaccaro said.

"I'm not surprised," said Rosemary Bitzel, customer. "They could be even higher. We're lucky to have them in Baltimore."

Bitzel likes the sweets at Vaccaro's so much, she bought some and Vaccaro's donated some for a charity sale.

And besides all their sweets, now at three of their four locations, they're serving real food. It's real "made in Baltimore" food and food that makes you feel really good.

They hope this national honor leads to even better things.

"Well, I hope it makes new customers come in to check us out and old customers to keep coming back to keep enjoying what they've been enjoying," Maria Vaccaro said.

Vaccaro's is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. except for Friday and Saturday when they stay open until midnight.

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