Staten Island pastry legend selling iconic Alfonso’s bakery

The owner of an iconic Staten Island bakery is putting his longtime family business up for sale, marking the bittersweet end of an era.

Alfonso’s Pastry Shoppe has been a borough staple since it was founded in 1970 by Italian immigrant Alfonso Campitiello, famously appearing in the 1983 film “Easy Money.”

But now the current owner, Alfonos’s son Anthony, told the Daily News it’s time for his family to move on from the business.

“It’s about time. It takes a lot out of you,” said Campitiello, pointing to the 4:30 a.m. wake-up time and not being able to take holidays off. “You’ve gotta love what you’re doing.”

But the decision, he said, was a tough one.

“This is all I’ve done my whole life,” he said. “I know nothing else.”

The bakery, located on Victory Blvd. in Westerleigh, has a range of fresh Italian baked goods from cookies and donuts to pies and breads, but is perhaps best known for its crispy cannolis and stunning cakes.

Campitiello hopes to pass Alfonso’s on to another owner as part of the sale of the building, which was listed last month for $2.2 million.

“I’m looking for somebody that would take over the business and run it the way like we did,” he said. “I’ve got guys with me 35 years, so it’s like more or less I take off my apron and give it to them and they run with the ball … I think we run a pretty tight ship so it should be pretty simple.”

Alfonso Campitiello opened his namesake shop at its current location in 1978 — a few blocks from its original Manor Road spot — after honing his pastry skills at the Plaza Hotel. He died in 2020 at the age of 81.

Campitiello said his father’s death, the pandemic and his own health issues have all put a “damper on things.” Anthony is now 56, a year older than Alfonso was when he retired.

The shop has a distinctive maroon awning that reaches the sidewalk; inside, the walls are plastered with news clippings and the artwork of grateful children decorated with color pencil hearts and handprint turkeys. Aside from typical bakery fare, customers can also purchase a cannoli chips and dip box and cannoli-scented candles.

Alfonso’s famously served as the backdrop for a scene in the 1983 film “Easy Money” where Rodney Dangerfield and Joe Pesci haul a giant wedding cake (which Alfonso himself baked). Radio personality Elvis Duran counts among the business’s famous fans.

Anthony has been baking his whole life, long enough to have made wedding cakes for customers and their children after them.

“The customers become family,” he said.

Campitiello said he may open a smaller version of the bakery where he lives in New Jersey to keep himself busy, “but nothing at a scale like this.”

According to broker Christine DeHart of Salmon Real Estate there has already been an interest in the business, including from other bakeries.

“He truly doesn’t want to see the doors closed,” she said. “He wants to continue the name on in Staten Island.”

She said a number of other such mom-and-pop businesses in the borough shuttered in the wake of the pandemic, when many New Yorkers turned to big box stores and delivery services instead of visiting local stores.

“To make a decision like this, it weighs on you,” Campitiello said. Still, “I think it’s the right thing. You know when it’s time.”