Throughout its six years of trials and triumphs, Little Italy Bakery is bouncing back after a temporary closure earlier this year, adding to a lengthy list of painstaking struggles that has rid the confined bakery of its desired potential.

Located in the heart of Preston St., the authentic Italian kitchen has long spent its days and nights hand making the bread of its customer’s desires. Whether it’s for the city’s craving restaurants and banquet halls, loyal walk-ins or an in-need individual during the holidays, the orders that come in have been met regardless of the business’ circumstances.

“If you’re closed for a week, you’re finished, you’re dead,” admits Ottavio Formica, who has been with the bakery since it’s opening in 2011. “I mean [customers] might wait a day, but they need the bread then and there so if they have to go somewhere else they will.”

Although it was not the first time, such circumstances nearly plagued the bakery in the early months of 2016. On March 9, after an inspector from Ottawa Public Health deemed their sanitation and food protection to be unacceptable, they were shut down. On March 11, after a frantic two-day effort to comply with the city’s regulations was made, Little Italy Bakery reopened with a sigh of relief.

Massimo Marti, owner of Little Italy Bakery, says it was a setback that they could barely afford. “We have no choice but to work hard,” says Marti, who emigrated from Calabria, Italy in 2008. “Tomorrow is supposed to be freezing rain and ten centimetres [of snow], but if you ordered the bread, the bread is coming.”

Evidently, this workhorse attitude of Marti, Formica and the bakery’s three other employees has been its saving grace. According to the City of Ottawa’s inspections data, Little Italy Bakery has been subject to the most non-complacent run-ins with city health and food inspectors since 2013.

In addition to these issues, the bakery has suffered mightily throughout Marti’s contention with the government. Throughout trials of his family’s deportation, the working permits of he and his wife, Vittoria Toscano, and his pending permanent residency, Marti has been, at times, forcibly absent from his high-demand bakery, leaving Formica and others to work for unwavering stretches of time. Working 24 shifts with a quick rest in between, they continued to make good on the bakery’s deliveries until Marti’s work permit was granted.

“It’s a very loyal friendship,” smiles Marti as he cradles his right hand, which has been frozen with carpal tunnel after an intensive work week. “We’re friends, I’m not an employer, he’s my friend.”

Along with Toscano, Marti and Formica have been working the Preston St. locale since the start. Having purchased the vicinity from past bakers, their compact kitchen, which stretches no more than 15 feet wide, has been serving bread for nearly six decades.

“Everyone gets inspected under the same regulations so of course older buildings don’t appear as great, however, that’s not an excuse,” says Toni D’Ettorre, an inspector supervisor from Ottawa Public Health that notes older buildings like Marti’s can slow down attempts to comply with food regulations. “Sometimes these types of establishments take more time to get a resolution than others.”

According to Marti, his hope for a bigger bakery that can handle more orders is currently on the backburner. Without a permanent residency, his future of working in Canada, along with the future of the bakery, is cloudy.

“I’m sorry. I’m still fixing my families situation. When I’m okay, the business will be more focused on.”

Little Italy Bakery from Peter Rukavina on Vimeo.

In the video above, Marti and Formica discuss their bakery, the techniques they use and, of course, their bread.
Source: Peter Rukavina