By: Nova M Bajamonti
Rudy’s Bakery & Cafe celebrated a huge milestone on Saturday, October 26 with the Ridgewood community – its 90th Anniversary during the return of the Seneca Avenue Stroll. The high energy of the festivity was palpable, as owner Antonetta Binanti, who goes by “Toni,” greeted all her enthusiastic, and loyal customers with a warm embrace and hearty smile.
The bakery offers a special touch, and one that you don’t experience often – it provides feelings of attending a wholesome, and cheerful family gathering. Rudy’s is also a foodie’s dream come true, by offering a huge plethora of delicious options, ranging from its old-fashioned jelly doughnuts, signature Black Forest Cake, to its Homemade Dark Hot Chocolate. “Everyday I walk into Rudy’s, I never feel like I’m going to work,” Binanti said. “I feel like I’m going to a happy place and my customers are just amazing, and today, the love and the support that I’m getting from all my customers, from every age – I mean I got a two-year-old this morning, telling me ‘Toni, congratulations,’ and then I got a lady coming in, and she’s 94 years old, and she told me she’s been coming to Rudy’s since the 60s. That just inspired me.”
Binanti’s uncle Ralph DiFonzo purchased the store in 1980, and as a young baker, she learned from him. Her uncle inspired her to take cooking classes in high school, and to then attend a trade school for baking. Her love for the delicious craft grew while working under him, and it stayed with her, long after his passing 22 years ago. Binanti’s uncle offered her the gems of his wise advice when he told her, “Stay focused, love what you do, and be honest and be true to your customers, and they’ll never fail you.” In the ever-changing and challenging economic times, especially in a huge metropolis such as New York City, Binanti thinks that the secret behind Rudy’s longevity is adaptation.
The bakery shop has created gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan pastries to ‘please’ Rudy’s customers of all needs, who have a sweet tooth. Binanti also believes that it’s the team-mentality that is the special ingredient to the bakery’s success. “The main thing [is], I think the way I run Rudy’s,” Binanti said. “First of all – I have an amazing staff. Anybody that joins me – they become my team and I tell them, ‘you’re Team Toni, and you’re Team Rudy’s, and we need to focus only on these two things, and we need to work on us.’
Pastry Chef Cristina Nastasi, who graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education, has been on the bakery’s talented team for the past 14 years. Her first high school job at 17 years old was at Rudy’s, and she’s known Binanti for over 20 years. Nastasi shares the same ‘passion for food, desserts and sugar,’ with Binanti and she’s inspired by the owner’s enthusiasm. “[Toni] loves what she does,” Nastasi said. “I love what I do. When you wake up every morning, and you’re excited to go to work and help customers – Toni loves her customers. She loves her business. She lives for this. So I know what gets her through every day is her love and her passion for her business. This is her baby. Seeing a woman like that, who wakes up everyday and loves what she does – I actually followed in her footsteps too when I wake up every day, and I love the same thing.” Nastasi holds dear the insight that Binanti once told her. “If you don’t love what you do, you will never make it, and you will not be happy,” Nastasi recalled.
Binanti’s daughter-in-law Giuseppa Capritto-Binanti, who works at Rudy’s believes that it’s Binanti’s bright aura that keeps customers coming back. “I think it’s her personality and just the way she talks,” Capritto-Binanti said. “She’s so strong and warm at the same time, because her caring demeanor is what attracts people here. I think it has to do with the warmth of everyone here, and everyone feels like family with customers. We know each other’s life stories and we know your order. We could just look at you, and we don’t have to ask certain people what they want. We just know it. It’s crowded like this, all the time honestly [on] some days, and it has to do with her mainly.” As for Binanti’s plans for Rudy’s future, she hopes to pass the torch. “My hope is one day, I could sell this to a young couple that have the same dream that I had when I first started 43 years ago,” Binanti said. “If you love what you do, it’s not a job.”
