'Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro closes Carlo's Bakery in Garden City
Buddy Valastro has closed his Carlo's Bakery in Garden City. Credit: Getty Images for Vegas Uncork'd/Ethan Miller
The Cake Boss has closed up shop on Long Island. Carlo’s Bakery, the chain owned by TV star Buddy Valastro, has closed its Garden City location after four years.
Valastro’s representative Nicole Valdes said that the company chose to not renew the lease at the Gallery at Westbury Plaza when it came to an end. “The brand continues to grow with locations sprinkled all over the country,” she said, and with “an online bakery making doorstep delivery throughout the continental United States possible.” There are currently 16 locations in the United States and two in Brazil.
Four of Valastro’s New Jersey bakeries — in Ridgewood, Morristown, Red Bank and Westfield — have also closed within the last two years.
Most of the actual baking at Carlo’s takes place in the company’s 70,000-square-foot bakery in Jersey City. The retail locations are supplied with baked cakes and cupcakes to be decorated on the premises. Cookie dough is frozen and baked off as needed; cannoli shells, made in New Jersey, are filled to order.
Valastro got his start as a baker at his father’s bakery, the original Carlo’s in Hoboken, New Jersey. When the reality show “Cake Boss” premiered in 2009, he was catapulted into the pastry stratosphere, both for his elaborate cakes and his effusive, down-to-earth demeanor.
“Cake Boss” spawned spinoff shows including “Cake Boss: Next Great Baker” and “Buddy’s Bakery Rescue” on TLC, and “Bake You Rich” on Food Network, whose first winner, in April, was Gerard Fioravanti, owner of Fiorello Dolce in Huntington.
Carlo’s departure is a net loss for area carbs. The space will next be occupied by a location of Chopt, the national salad chain. According to Regency, which owns and operates the Gallery at Westbury Plaza, Chopt should open by the end of the year.
