This family-run Italian bakery has been open nearly 40 years. Their secret? Give customers the unexpected

When someone says “bakery,” your mind immediately conjures display cases filled with scores of colorful cakes, fluffy breads, and oddly shaped pastries. Right? But where exactly do pizza, veal cutlets, and rice balls fit in?

Nestled in a quiet strip mall near a hair studio and music school, on an unassuming North York street, Rustic Bakery at 318 Rustic Rd., near Keele and the 401, is one shop whose quaint name belies its vast offerings.

“I grew up in this store and I always like being here,” says Mirella Loiero, 61, who took over the place 37 years ago with her late husband Francesco. And it’s still a family affair, as her son Joey, 33, assists in the pastry room and her other son, Domenic, 37, oversees the breadmaking.

Her daughter Mary, 42, used to work as a cashier there before she had a child and became a full-time teacher.

Mirella’s brothers, Danny and Sam, can also be found at Rustic every day, often working the cash register with her and helping with sales.

When you first walk inside, it’s clear this is more than a grab-and-go spot: eight tables take up the front space where folks sip espressos and chat in a mix of English and Italian.

This Italian bakery attracts customers near and far with desserts and baked bread, the former a true visual delight: it’s hard not to miss the bright yellow lemon cake and the stunning red strawberry shortcake, and the rainbow of hues adorning the macarons and cannoli fillings. The cannolis are especially popular and tasty, made with fillings such as ricotta or custard.

But what reels in many customers is the heady range of prepared Italian food, including pizzas and such hot-table goodies as lasagna, veal cutlets, roasted veggies, fried fish, and arancini rice balls. Two friendly staffers keep the busy line moving by serving customers quickly.

The majority of the 6,000-square-foot space is taken up by a dizzying array of grocery items, including imported Italian favourites such as the sweet bread known as colomba – an Easter tradition – and torrone morbido nougat candy. The shop has more than 40 shelves packed with dozens of different pastas, 14 types of olives and 23 kinds of cookies and biscuits.

Rustic Bakery fills every available nook with something to catch a customer’s eye, whether it’s a stack of $200 espresso machines available for purchase near the popular coffee bar (which opens at 5:30 a.m., 90 minutes before the rest of the bakery does) or the 21 brands of boxed chocolates lining a wall close to the tables.

Mirella credits the success of the shop to the loyalty of her neighbours. “We have a nice mix of Italian and Portuguese people who always come here to meet friends, and then there are the schools,” she says, referring to nearby Maple Leaf Public School, Saint Fidelis School and P.T. Montessori. “So many students come through our doors every year, and in September there’s always new students discovering us. And they often come with their parents and grandparents, who might discover us for the first time.”

Hailing from Calabria, Italy, Mirella moved to Toronto when she was seven and grew up downtown, in the Bloor and Delaware area, before meeting Francesco. Soon after they married and had their first child, they took over Rustic Bakery from another family. What began as a store just a third of the size of its current incarnation soon expanded when they turned the garage area at the back into the pizza-making and hot-table-prepping room, and then added more grocery space when a hairdresser next door shut down.

Both of Mirella’s sons began working at Rustic in their teens, eager to ensure that the bakery became a neighbourhood success.

“I was kind of surprised when Joey wanted to get into cake decorating, since he was into music first,” Mirella says. “He told us that working here is bigger to him than music.”

After her husband died in 1996, she found it difficult to return to work, but her brothers encouraged her, and once she headed back to Rustic Bakery after two months off, she was consoled by many of her customers. “These customers are like family, I’ve known them for so long,” she says, adding that some even make the drive from downtown or Woodbridge.

“We’ve even had the odd celebrity or two,” she says. “Do you know the rapper Snow? He comes here with his wife. They often get cakes. They are both so nice.”

As for succession plans, she hasn’t really thought about them. Yet. “It’s a lot of responsibility to run Rustic,” she admits. “My eyes have to be everywhere all the time.” As if on cue, she gestures to a nearby staffer to help a man waiting at the coffee bar.

“This is more than a bakery,” she says, and she’s not even talking about the offerings. “It’s a community.”

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