Eats
Tribeca’s Grandaisy Bakery
celebrates 15 years in business
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
There are a lot of reasons
to rejoice! It’s been a long
15 months and we all are
comin’ on out!
Even more so with Tribeca’s
Grandaisy Bakery marking its
15 -year anniversary of non-stop
ovens baking some of NYC’s
best and favorite bread, panini,
dolce (pastries), and Roman-style
pizzas.
On Monday, June 14, from
10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Grandaisy is
celebrating! At its West Broadway
and Beach Street location, there
will be sidewalk jazz, complimentary
loaves of bread (while
they last), and much neighborly
merriment.
The bakeshop, open from 7
a.m. to 5 p.m., will be stocked
with its usual delicious goods and
baristas will be preparing favorite
beverages.
“We gratefully thank our loyal
community of customers, suppliers,
staff, friends, fans and family
who have helped make Grandaisy
a beloved downtown destination
during these years,” says founder
and owner Monica Von Thun
Calderón.
And the feeling is mutual from
neighbors who found this bakery
a constant, particularly, always
open and serving, during those
lonely, isolated early months of
the pandemic. Soldiering on,
overnight, staff at Grandaisy went
from 85 to nine employees.
As restaurants open and orders
increase, staff is added—now
up to 40, almost half of prepandemic
days. When the subways
stopped running 24-hours,
schedules for bakers arriving during
early morning hours needed
adjustment.
Over the years, the bakery
has survived numerous additional
crises—environmental
(Sandy), economic, and civic
demonstrations. This is a special
Thank You Celebration for the
community.
“When I opened Grandaisy
Bakery, my goal was to create a
space for the art of bread baking
to thrive,” says Monica. “It
is not just years of practice, but
a hospitable and friendly work
environment that leads to great
bakers. We are, as our motto says:
Defending the Art of Handcrafted
Bread.”
Behind the doors in the retail
shop is where the bread magic
happens, the huge actual bakery
where one can sense the energy
of the bakers mixing, rolling, the
trays of shaped dough put into the
oven and coming out browned
and crusty.
Many members of the team
have been working together for
over a decade, if not since the
beginning. And, they come from
all over the world.
Monica explains, “Speaking
many different languages —ASL,
Bengali, English, French, Italian,
and Spanish, we manage to communicate
and work together baking
and delivering these artisanal
baked goods.”
Perennial favorites include the
dark crusty fi lone, the awardwinning
ciabatta and the semi
di sesamo. Season delights that
customers look forward to are the
schiacciatta d’uva—a champagne
grape-studded fl at bread, and the
panini caprese—a sandwich made
with local farmers’ heirloom tomatoes
and mozzarella di buffalo.
Monica grew up eating and
sharing homemade cakes and pastries
baked by her grandmother,
known by everyone in her Denver
neighborhood as Grandaisy.
“All the children, whatever
their nationality or language,
could say her name and would
come to share the delicious baked
treats she would make for us to
enjoy after school.”
The bakery’s name is a tribute
to her. Monica beams, “Walking
through the doors of the bakery
and remembering my grandmother
gives meaning and inspiration
to my work each day.”
PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
A favorite, sesamo.
The magic goes in the bakery, right through the doors of the retail bakeshop.
Grandaisy Bakery, at Beach and West Broadway, across from Tribeca Park. The ovens and
bread magic is in the actual bakery extending far along Beach Street
32 June 10, 2021 Schneps Media