W. Boylston Baker Takes On Ambitious Expansion | New 20,000-square-foot facility will be a one-stop shop for brides
Photo/Christina H. Davis
KEY INGREDIENTS: Gerardo Sarli has consistently expanded his bakery business. In October, he'll be moving into a brand-new, 20,000-square-foot building in West Boylston.
Photo/Christina H. Davis
Managing a multi-location bakery empire requires long hours, a mind that is constantly running and some serious attention to detail. Gerardo Sarli makes it look like a piece of cake.
Gerardo’s Italian Bakery is thriving in a time when bakeries are closing their doors, unable to survive a difficult economy. With a main bakery in West Boylston and satellite branches in Westborough, Sterling and Bolton, Sarli shows no signs of stopping to rest.
This October, he will open Gerardo’s Wedding Emporium at 339 West Boylston Road, right down the street from his existing main bakery. The 20,000-square-foot building will be a place for brides to do the bulk of their wedding planning — including master plans for their cake, of course — while Gerardo advises them on the best vendors in Worcester County.
“We’ve worked with all of them,” he said. “We know who’s good, who’s great and who isn’t even close.”
Measured Approach
What sets Gerardo’s apart is a dedication to what Sarli calls “a dying art:” baking from scratch. He claims that most bakeries — particularly the ones that haven’t been able to grow — buy frozen dough and fillings from large conglomerates and throw them together into something that resembles a homemade treat.
“Some people might ask themselves, ‘Why would I bother stopping at a bakery when I can get the same exact thing at the supermarket?’” he said. “But it’s not the same thing. My customers want quality and that’s what I give them.”
Sarli’s customers are also looking for a good price and he delivers. His wedding cakes have been voted “Best of New England” by the national wedding website and magazine The Knot for the past three years, citing not only the design and flavor but the reasonable rates.
Using fresh ingredients and actually doing the work to turn them into mouth-watering breads, cakes, pastries and an impressive lineup of Italian cookies and sweets is something he learned from the old-style masters at an early age.
Sarli planted his roots for the future at the age of 15, when he landed a job as a cleaner at a Jewish bakery in Worcester. The old-timers saw some talent in him and began to teach him their methods and recipes, setting into a motion a career that would find Sarli where he is today, three decades and 45 employees later, with a bakery business that is steadily rising.
“The response has been very good,” said Sarah O’Toole, manager of Bolton Orchards, a quaint produce and grocery market at the intersection of Routes 117 and 110 in Bolton, which has housed a branch of Gerardo’s bakery since February. “We don’t have a bakery in the area, so our customers have been pleased. We hope it will be a permanent arrangement.”
Maintaining quality in each of his satellite locations is the secret of his success, and Sarli achieves this in a couple of ways. For starters, he pays all of his bakeries a visit each and every morning, like a surgeon making the rounds.
But more importantly, he knows each of his employees by name and creates a family atmosphere where trust and dedication are the norm.
“All of my employees are taught by me the way I want things done,” he said. “They know they can talk to me, that we will work it out.”
But the final secret to high-quality sweets is Gerardo’s team spirit, and not just with regard to the climate within his own bakery.
“I love to see other bakeries succeed,” he said. “It’s not me against them — it’s all of us (scratch bakers) against the big supermarket bakeries. We should be helping each other out.”
Sarli added that he is happy to share his recipes when asked — a favor he has done on more than one occasion with fellow baker Joe Dukas, owner of Worcester’s Widoff Bakery.
“He has shared recipes with me many times,” said Dukas. “He’s just like that — I run out of stuff, he runs out of stuff, we trade off. Where else are you gonna get 50 pounds of butter at 2 a.m? We help each other out.”
But true to his business ethics, Sarli and Dukas are more than just colleagues or even competitors — they are friends. “He’s just a lovable guy,” said Dukas.
With Gerardo’s Wedding Emporium set to open later this year, Sarli is looking forward to the next phase of building strong relationships with the brides that utilize all the new business will have to offer.
“I make sure that I personally meet with each and every bride,” he said. “I like to put a face to the cake.”
But Sarli won’t stop there. His plans for the future include opening at least one more branch, potentially in the Hopkinton/Natick area. And when that time comes, he’ll need to call upon the talents of his team to make it happen.
“A successful business is run by its workers,” he said. “I can’t run it by myself.”
Amanda Roberge is a freelance writer based in Leominster.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments