A product of the working class, the bakery proved to be another business vital to the Italian community. Women who worked or those with poor kitchen facilities found home bread-making, a practice common to native-born, middle-class women, impractical. Since the Italian diet was heavily reliant on bread, an avenue of opportunity opened itself to entrepreneurial Italians. Initially, however, ethnic bakeries in the city were primarily German-owned. A new kind of baking enterprise was also to be found. Aided by technological innovations such as continuous firing ovens, mechanical mixers, automatic molding machines, and automatic dough dividers, large-scale bakeries became a reality for the first time. In 1898, the Brice Baking Co. of Chicago was able to produce 36 loaves of bread a minute with the new technology. Neither the German bakeries, nor the mass produced loaves of large bakeries attracted much Italian business, however. [93]

"It is generally conceded," wrote one student of the baking industry, "that the consumer wants a crust which is thin and tender." This was not true for Italians. Italian style breads were made with a minimum of ingredients and lacked the sugar, milk, potatoes, or shortening often used in American recipes. The lack of shortening gave the crust a "special crispness" which allowed it to keep without becoming stale, an important point for frugal Italian consumers. It also gave it a certain heaviness which allowed it to be dunked in coffee without dissolving or used in a variety of dishes, such as homemade pizzas. [94]

While Italians sometimes purchased breakfast biscuits from German bakeries, those without the time or equipment to bake their own bread purchased Italian style breads from the many small family-run Italian bakeries that began to open in the Near North and Near West Side neighborhoods. Bakeries, like other food enterprises, required little in the way of initial investment. A baker in a San Francisco union local estimated it required only about $200.00 to set up shop, and even less, if one took a cellar location. An 1896 report by the Illinois Inspector of Workshops and Factories

By 1920, 173 bakeries could be found in the Jewish and Italian neighborhood of the Near West Side; 42 bakeries were on the Lower North Side; 36 were located in the Loop and four in the Italian neighborhood on the Near South Side. As with other food-related businesses, not all operations remained small. The Torino Bakery became one of the largest in the city. Fred Salerno, who began as a "greasy pans boy" in 1889 went on to become the general manager and vice-president of the Sawyer Biscuit Company, one of the largest baking firms in the country. In 1933, with R. Lee Megowen, he founded the Salerno-Megowen Biscuit Company at 4500 W. Division in Chicago. [96]

Alessandro Gonnella provided another industry rags-to-riches story. Born in the small town of Barga in northern Italy, Gonnella came to Chicago where he worked briefly in the stockyards after a three-year stay in Buffalo as a young man. Leaving the stockyards, he was fortunate to get a job in a storefront bakery on DeKoven Street on the Near West Side, where he worked, slept at night, and devoted so much time to learning the trade that he needed help in selecting a bride when he decided to marry. In time, he learned to bake the Piedmontese or French style bread, which the owner sold, and eventually was able to buy out the bakery.

From 1895 to 1924, he was in business at 216 N. Sangamon. During this time, he sent for his nephews, three boys aged ten, nine, and seven, to help him in his now successful enterprise. By 1924, the Gonnella Baking Co. was incorporated and in new, larger quarters at 2006-2012 W. Erie where Alessandro's relatives marketed Gonnella Northern Italian style breads to grocery stores and restaurants throughout the Chicagoland area. More common, of course, were small, two-worker operations. In 1927, of the 1,905 bakeries in Chicago, 1,327 still had only two workers. [97]

Another equally important kind of bakery could be found in Little Italy on the Near West Side. These were Italian pastry shops, which sold the fancy cookies and cakes enjoyed at Italian weddings and celebrations. Florence Scala recalled that at least six of these large bakeries lined #69 Taylor Street up to Ashland on the Near West Side by the 1920s. In 1908, Salvatore Ferrara opened the most famous, and possibly the first, at 772 W. Taylor. Salvatore had come to Chicago in 1900 from Naples and worked his way up to ownership of his own pastry shop. He married an Italian girl from the neighborhood, Serafina, whose family had opened a bakery at 754 W. Taylor about 1911. The original Ferrara Pastry Shop became famous not only for its fine pastries and its patient credit policy for neighborhood customers but also for the philanthropic activities of its owner's wife. Serafina, the "Angel of Halsted Street," gave Christmas parties for neighborhood children, supported numerous charitable causes, and was godmother to over 90 neighborhood children. [98]