SoNo Baking Company & Café will shut its doors on Water Street in South Norwalk for the final time on Sunday, Nov. 1, closing a chapter that began more than two decades ago. Owner John Barricelli, who is turning 67 this year, says he's retiring after 50 years in the food business, and the news has sent longtime customers scrambling back to the bakery one more time before it's gone.
Barricelli announced the closure on Facebook last Wednesday, Oct. 21, according to Daily Voice, which reported that the bakery has served the South Norwalk community since 2005. He called the decision bittersweet, and the outlet noted that owners also closed the company's Darien location months earlier. As News 12 Connecticut first reported, Barricelli opened SoNo Baking Co. on the corner of Water Street in 2005, and he described the closure simply as emotional.
A Baking Career Rooted in Family and Television
Barricelli's path to South Norwalk started young. According to News 12, his great-grandfather, Giuseppe Barricelli, once owned a panetteria in Brooklyn, New York, and John began working in the food business himself at age 16. Before opening his own shop, he worked for Martha Stewart for many years, and Stewart lured him from the restaurant world to help create television prep kitchens, per the same report.
That relationship kept Barricelli in the public eye well beyond South Norwalk. He appeared regularly on Martha Stewart's shows, and according to the Stamford Advocate, he served as host of PBS's Everyday Food and appeared on The Martha Stewart Show. Stewart also wrote the foreword to one of his cookbooks, News 12 reported. Barricelli went on to publish two books of his own, The Seasonal Baker and The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook, according to the bakery's own website, sonobaking.com.
Inside the bakery, Barricelli has stuck to old-school methods. He told News 12 that the bakery makes its products using traditional techniques, relying on equipment as simple as a mixer, an oven and a bench. SoNo Baking Co. sells breads, pastries, cakes and cookies, and is especially known for its croissants, sourdough loaves and baguettes, per the same report. The shop has operated out of a 3,600-square-foot former warehouse since 2005, according to the bakery's website.
From Five Locations Down to One
The bakery once operated five locations at its peak before closing all of them except the original South Norwalk shop, News 12 reported. The company had also pursued expansion in recent years: a second outpost was planned at A & J's Farm Stand on Post Road East in Westport, according to NBC Connecticut, with plans for a full espresso bar and breakfast items like buttermilk pancakes, egg sandwiches, omelets and stuffed brioche French toast. That report also noted the expansion would have intensified competition with Michele's Pies, another Norwalk business that had relocated to Westport.
Barricelli told News 12 that the rise of other bakeries and a new generation of bakers helped make his retirement timely, pointing to shops like Kneads and Fatto a Mano as part of that next wave. According to Barricelli, G Café Bakery will move into SoNo Baking Co.'s space once it closes.
Customers Say Goodbye to Two Decades of Memories
The response from regulars has been emotional. Bonnie Cinquegrana of New Canaan told News 12 the closure felt devastating, adding that her mother on Long Island loves the bakery's thumbprint cookies. Connor Buck, who lives around the corner from the bakery, called the closing heartbreaking, per the same report.
For some customers, the bakery is tangled up with major life moments. One customer told News 12 she met her future husband on a blind date at the bakery two decades ago, and the couple now returns together every year for their anniversary. Jason Zwickler of Norwalk said he has brought his daughter to the bakery since she was 2 years old, and the pair used to pick up monkey bread while watching staff work through the window, according to the report.
Word of the closing has already brought a rush of business. Barricelli told News 12 that customers packed into the bakery after he baked bread just a few days earlier, and the shop sold out amid the crowd. With the final day set for Sunday, longtime customers have just over a week left to say goodbye to the South Norwalk institution.
