Buzz
Tribeca’s Grandaisy Bakery celebrates
14 years with bread giveaway
BY BETH DEDMAN
Grandaisy Bakery, located in
Tribeca, is celebrating 14 years
of business with balloons and
free bread to neighborhood residents and
anyone who will take it.
After restaurants closed and Grandaisy’s
primary source of income, wholesale bread
orders, were depleted, owner Monica Von
Thun Calderón decided to keep the retail
storefront open so locals could continue
to have a place to grab a cup of coffee and
a sandwich, General Manager Anthony
Haydu said.
Tribeca residents began to regularly visit
the bakery, Haydu said. They have roughly
160 customers visit their storefront every
day.
“It was really nice knowing that we
could, with the help of the community, stay
open and be able to give to them,as well as
the local 1st Precinct,” Haydu said. “They
thanked us enormously that we were the
only place in like a six block area where
we could get a cup of coffee.”
Grandaisy Bakery also partnered with
the North Brooklyn Angels, a nonprofi t
organization that is working to combat
hunger in the midst of the pandemic, to
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GRANDAISY BAKERY
Online comedy series ‘The Honeyzoomers’
explores New York City’s pandemic experience
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
A new online comedy series explores
living through the coronavirus in
New York City – and the whole
thing is being created while in quarantine.
“The Honeyzoomers” stars Joli Tribuzio
and Johnny Tammaro as Deb and Ant
Bizzaro, a sister and brother who are
“temporarily” living together in Ant’s
apartment in Greenwich Village because
of Deb’s separation from her husband.
When the pandemic hit and stay at home
orders were put in place, the pair found
themselves stuck together indefi nitely, with
Deb teaching from Ant’s apartment and
Ant leaving his bus driver job and dealing
with his health anxieties.
The show was created by Charles Messina,
a playwright who was supposed to
open the new musical “The Wanderer,”
which is about the life of Dion. at the Paper
donate their leftover loaves of bread for
meals to be distributed to the community.
Other nonprofi ts began turning Grandaisy
away, saying they had too much bread, so
excess bread began to be thrown away.
Paul Samulski, President of the North
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and a
volunteer for the North Brooklyn Angels,
Mill Playhouse in May. With the opening
date pushed back to April 2021, Messina
found himself spending his days at home
not sure what to do when producer and
composer Jeremy Long (who composed the
theme song for the show) suggested that
he create something while in quarantine.
“Jeremy said to me, ‘Why don’t you do
something?’” said Messina. “So I started to
talk with Joli and Johnny, who I’ve worked
with before, and we started to think about
what we could create. We started to think
about what we’re going through here in New
York, and how we can create something in
quarantine, and we ended up making something
about quarantine, while in quarantine.”
Each episode of “The Honeyzoomers,”
which is executive produced by Jill Menza,
takes about a week to make, according to
Messina. Messina will write a script and
send it to Tribuzio and Tammaro, who
will read it over together over the phone
was walking by the bakery one night and
noticed that there were a lot of really good
loaves of all types of bread in their dumpster,
he said.
Samulski approached Haydu and Calderón
and asked them to start setting aside
the best of the best loaves at the end of
the day and hold them for him to pick up
the following morning, as he headed to the
or on Zoom. After providing feedback and
coming up with a shot list, Tribuzio and
Tammaro fi lm their scenes separately in
their own homes and then Tribuzio edits
the show together.
Like the name suggests, the show draws
a lot of inspiration from television shows
such as “The Honeymooners,” “The Odd
Couple” and “All in the Family.” Much like
“The Honeymooners,” Messina’s show is
in black and white, has the same title for
every episode, and only plans to have a
39-episode run.
As the show goes on, viewers can expect
to see guest stars in future episodes. Messina
and the team have also created a series
of public service announcements where
Deb and Ant Bizarro telling New Yorkers
to wear a mask and wash their hands in a
comedic way.
“We’re not political, but we should
refl ect on what needs to be done to end
kitchen.
“We’re just happy to be able to give to
people who are in need,” Haydu said.
Samulski oversees the North Brooklyn
Angels production line every morning,
and works with volunteers, many of them
regulars, to pack-out however many meals
are needed for each day, he said.
“We usually average around 500 meals
per day and in addition to a protein, a
starch, some salad, fruit and quite often
a pastry ‘treat’, each meal also comes
complete with a couple slices of delicious
Grandaisy Bakery Italian-style bread,”
Samulski said. “Every day usually starts
with a volunteer or two slicing the many
loaves I carry in with me.”
Haydu encourages the community to
keep coming by the bakery and meet the
baristas, who have gotten to know the
names of the local regulars in the store.
“This is a very humble, small bakery,”
Haydu said. “Monica has done a great job
pulling this all together for the last 14 years.
It’s a fun place to work, with really good
people of lots of nationalities. There’s some
really good bakers. It’s just a really good
local bakery.”
Grandaisy Bakery is open from 7 a.m.- 3
p.m. every day at 250 West Broadway.
the pandemic,” said Messina. “But we also
want to make people smile.
Messina hopes that New Yorkers, in
particular, will be able to see some of their
own experiences through the lens of the
show and still be able to laugh about it.
“We’re taking on a lot of the subjects, and
we’re doing it with some warmth and heart
and laughter.”
Episodes of “The Honeyzoomers” air
once a week and can be found on www.
thehoneyzoomers.com or on “The Honeyzoomers”
YouTube channel, or fi nd updates
about the show on their Instagram profi le.
18 June 11, 2020 Schneps Media
/www.thehoneyzoomers.com
/www.thehoneyzoomers.com
/thehoneyzoomers.com
