Collegeville Italian Bakery vs Collegeville Italian Deli

[YoPhilly]

First the signs go up indicating a move across the street.

The Collegeville Deli store moves across the street and renovations are made to the old establishment.

A Grand opening on October 24th with the following statement...Were the original and we never moved and we've been here since 1994.

What do you think...family politics split the store down the middle or is it something simpler?

[GSupp]

We've been trying to figure that out ourselves. We're regulars, and when they first moved across the street to the "deli", Barb said that Giovanni was opening an Italian market across the street, and that all baking was still going to be done across the street. They don't have room to bake in the deli. And I saw Giovanni in the deli last time we were in. Maybe foot traffic was down at the deli, and they're re-opening the bakery and saying that they're still there? I haven't been in a couple of weeks, but I hope to find out what's going on. They're good people, so I hope it's not some sort of family rift.

[YoPhilly]

See, that's how I heard it as well.

I was told the same (deli and market will remain in the new location while all the baking (for the store and local businesses) will remain across the street.)

I figured the renovations were an upgrade to the baking factory (in order to keep up with the growing demands of the bakery) and never assumed that particular store would reopen for regular people.

I'm not sure where my loyalty is supposed to fall (just know it's not at the wegman's deli :))

[Frannie]

I heard that they split up barb is not family to John they just were partners and split. None of the bread that barb sells is made from johns bakery she gets the bread from someone else rumor is that it comes from conshocken bakery. I think it's wierd that she opened across the street.

[Phillygirl]

I've been going there since it opened so I guess my loyality lies with the original owner. I love the bread so if collrgeville deli is getting it from someone else I'm going to Giovanni's for my bread.

[Gilbert Keith]

The bread is definitely not from Conshy, I wish that it was though. The C-ville bread is good but no where near Conshy standards.

[Supp]

If you want to sit down and eat some delicious sandwiches, definitely go across the street to the Collegeville Italian Deli, where the people who made the old Collegeville Italian Bakery what it was, a special, local neighborhood bakery. Don't like the way the "new" owners of the Bakery essentially kicked out the deli folks, in what was I believe supposed to originally be a partnership. "

[bikerowen]

I don't know the whole story, BUT the peole that ran The Collegeville Italian bakery at this location, moved across the street and renovated and opened a new location - there was some sort of dispute. If you want to be served by the same people you had become accustomed to, you may want to check out the Italian Bakery across the street as well.

[Janice S]

Talk around town is that there are to many different stories coming from the Deli people and the 1 same story coming from the Bakery people (kinda makes you wonder why the Deli keeps changing the story???)
Anyway...all I know is that when the Deli people took over a few years ago, the sandwiches were never the same again, they were skimpy. Thank God that the original Bakery people are back at it. The baker's daughter is back making the sandwiches and they are exactly how I remember them, packed and delicious. Been to the Bakery every week since they opened back up and am one happy camper. Good luck to the Deli people, they are going to need it.

[GSupp]

There was an article in the paper today, it is from Conshohocken. I like the tomato pie that the deli has now better than the one that the bakery makes. The bakery's tomato pie was good, but the sauce was always on the runny side, and if you got a really sloppy pie, it was a mess to eat. Article offers some insight as to what happened. When the deli originally moved, they were planning on using the original bakery's bread. Believe that Giovanni's daughter decided to get in the retail biz and compete with the deli and stopped selling Barb and Alex their bread.

By the way, the same deli people have been running the sandwiches for years, it's not like they just took over a few years ago. I haven't seen a drop-off in the sandwich sizes over the years, and I've been patronizing them for quite some time. Here's the link to the article, not sure how it will come through.

http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2009/12/1...

[Gilbert Keith]

I was wrong... But there is definitely something different about the kaiser rolls they are selling at the deli. They don't taste the same as the ones directly from the Conshy bakery.

[rick]

Listen Giovanni's is the original. Period. Patricia and the family started it in 94 and then sold the deli end when it became too much for them to handle. They never stopped making their bread even when they sold the deli part. barb moved across the street for all kinds of reasons so john and patricia and family decided to open there deli again. since they were subleasing to barb they still have to pay for the front square footage. So they figured why not open the deli again and im glad they did.