Yep you heard it another business goes flat after the Biden administration cost business chains to take a major brunt of higher prices for Flour and other items for bake goods.

Effective This Week Martusciello now known as Casa Saratoga will close its doors thanks to the high cost of products to run the business Casa Saratoga has been in business for over 50 years and were located on Saratoga Ave in Rochester N.y by Jefferson High School Until the 1990 when it moved to Gates.

The Martusciello family, which has been baking Italian breads in the Rochester area since the late 1950s, is calling it quits.
Casa Saratoga, until recently known as Martusciello Bakery, has closed its doors at 2280 Lyell Ave. in Gates.

"We're all taking a break," said Frank Martusciello, 68, who has been working in the family business since he was 16 years old. His son, Frank Jr., and grandson Anthony, are the third and fourth generations in the business. "We feel for the best of the bakery and customers, we need to take a step back. We need to work on a lot of issues."

Flour prices have doubled, he said

Part-time help has been hard to find.

Raising prices is not the solution, he said. "In this area, it's impossible to get $5 for a loaf of bread," he said.

The family is renovating the interior of the building that it owns on Lyell Avenue and will reevaluate the situation in the spring. It is considering reopening in a smaller part of the spacious building, moving to a different location or licensing its products to another business.

"I did the best I can," Martusciello said. "It comes from my heart."



Gaetano Martusciello, who founded the bakery, grew up just outside Naples, Italy, and learned the baking trade there.

In the late 1950s, he and his wife, Maria, started baking and selling breads out of their home at 229 Saratoga Ave. At that time, there were many small Italian bakeries in the Lyell-Plymouth neighborhood.

Frank Martusciello, Gaetano and Maria's Martusciello's youngest child, started working in the business at the age of 16 and took over business when Gaetano retired. Frank Martusciello started a wholesale business and also started serving pizzas, calzones, subs and sweet treats in their retail shop.

In 1996, Frank Martusciello purchased the building on Lyell Avenue, which had previously been a hardware store, and moved the bakery.

Over the past several months, the business has reduced its offerings due to limited staff and rising costs, Martusciello said. It stopped offering large sub sandwiches, and only served sandwiches on rolls. It operated on a walk-in-only basis; they did not answer the phone or accept orders via internet because they couldn't keep up.

"We were so fortunate to have such great customers," he said. "My staff was amazing getting through Christmas."
Wholesale customers adjust

More than 30 years ago, Roosevelt Scott worked in sales at Judge's, the city's first Ford dealership, and was a frequent customer of Martusciello's on Saratoga Avenue.

When he decided to start a food stand at the Rochester Public Market in 1991, he headed to Martusciello's for hard rolls for his breakfast sandwiches. The Scott's II stand would go on to draw long lines for what many considered to be the best breakfast sandwich in town

That roll is very different than every other roll," said Cedric Scott, Roosevelt's son, who now serves the breakfast sandwiches at his restaurant, Scott's Scottsville Hots. "The roll is just as important as the bacon and the egg. The roll brings everything together."

When he heard that Martusciello's was closing, he bought up every hard roll they had on hand, and he's been on the hunt for a replacement. He think he's close to a solution. "I'm optimistic," he said.

Calabresella's New York Style Deli has been doing business with Martusciello's since Guglielmo "William" Mammoliti opened the business some 50 years ago.

Dominic Mammoliti, Guglielmo's son, still remembers the double round breads and crown breads that Gaetano Martusciello used to make. His deli, which now has four locations, had been ordering its hamburger rolls and sub rolls from Martusciello's.

"They did have a quality bread," Mammoliti said. "It's kind of sad. You hate to see these places close down because they go away forever."

"It's just very hard in today's world to find employees and to keep the quality of your product the same," he said.