38 THE QUEENS COURIER • QUEENS BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 14, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
queens business
Maspeth’s charming Babka Bakers serves
up wholesome Polish bread and sweets
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
Babka Bakers, a charming Polish bakery,
opened fi ve years ago in Maspeth —
specifi cally on Dec. 13, 2014.
“It’s the last time it’ll ever be sequential
dates: 12/13/14,” its founder, Tom
Madalinski, pointed out.
Th e family-run bakery, located at 60-45
Maspeth Ave., prides itself on a menu full
of fresh and non-GMO ingredients —
which are mostly imported from Poland
— to provide customers with the healthiest
and tastiest experience possible.
“I’d say 95 percent of our recipes are
either from my great-grandfather, or of
anybody else from our family that was
German and Polish,” Madalinski said.
You can fi nd all sorts of traditional
Polish and German fare at Babka’s, including
poppy seed strudels, apple cake (or
“szarlotka”), fl uff y cheesecakes (or “krakowski”)
and, of course, their namesake,
babkas, a braided bread full of sweet fi llings.
But it’s their variety of breads that take
center stage.
Among their most popular items is
their spelt (or “chleb orkiszowy”) bread,
which is covered in sunfl ower seeds and
has great nutritional value, such as higher
protein and lower gluten count than traditional
wheat fl our.
Th ey even added a “just seeds” bread
for those with gluten allergies or sensitivities,
which is completely fl ourless and
made up of seeds that are held together
with honey. When you have a bite of it, it’s
easy to believe it’s bread due to its coarse
consistency.
Madalinski only uses unbleached, non-
GMO fl our from Poland in his bread, not
only because it gave them the taste and
consistency they needed for their family
recipes, but also because the simple, yet
vital ingredient gives customers a healthier
food option.
“When we opened up, a lot of the
Maspeth people were saying, ‘Finally,
we’ve been getting sick of this white bread,
we want a diff erent option,’” Madalinski
said. “It warms my heart to know that I’m
able to give the next generation a healthier
product.”
Madalinski didn’t know that he’d
become a full-time baker, even though the
profession ran in his family — his father
was a pastry chef in Poland before moving
to the United States.
But aft er attending St. John’s University
and earning a master’s degree in English,
he thought he’d see what baking on a
larger scale would entail. Luckily, his
father’s friend happened to own a bakery
in Australia, where he worked at and
learned about the business.
“I liked it, and came back and started
looking for a space,” Madalisnki said.
“Th e thing that drew me in most, especially
with the bread, is that it’s a really
holistic type of career. I feel like it’s very
wholesome just to make bread for people.”
For the 29-year-old, who went to elementary
school right next door at St.
Photos by Angelica Acevedo
Stanislaus Kostka School, it feels full circle
to have his storefront in a neighborhood
where he spent so much time in as a kid.
“It’s funny how things align,” he said.
Babka Bakers also specializes in
wholesales that span from Brooklyn to
Connecticut. Th e idea came about “one
cold night in January,” as Madalinski
remembered, aft er they ended up getting
way more loaves of bread than anticipated.
“I started going around stores that were
open, I had a good ol’ reliable Subaru, so
I was zipping around in the snow and I
was like, ‘I have this bakery and I have
fresh bread,’ and they said, ‘We’ll take it,’”
he said.
In the end, though, Babka Bakers prefers
quality over quantity.
“Th ere’s a Polish saying that goes,
‘Always eat with a smaller spoon,’”
Madalinski said.
He explained that it means more than
just resisting gluttonous tendencies.
“Always be patient and eat with a smaller
spoon, and, eventually, you’ll be full
and get to where you need to be,” he
added. “So we believe in keeping it nice
and slow, keeping it more personal, and
giving more attention to our products.”
Babka Bakers uses about “95 percent” authentic family recipes in its Maspeth location.
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