'Best Italian Bread Outside Italy': Pittsburgh's Iconic Bakery Nears 100 Years Of Operation

Pittsburgh has all the advantages of a big city, in smaller packaging. You like recreational outdoor spaces? Head to Schenley Park. Want to be astounded by architecture? Check out the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh's campus. Want to eat like the locals? You've got the iconic Primanti Bros. sandwich and its unique Pittsburgh Rare steak. But if you want to find the true soul of Pittsburgh's carb scene, you have to look toward Mancini's Bakery, a historic institution nearing 100 years of operation.

Mancini's, which operates both a tremendously sized on-site bakery and shop in McKees Rocks, as well as a smaller space and store in the Strip District, has been in operation since 1926, and it has remained in the Mancini family ever since. The bakery has become a beloved staple in the Pittsburgh area, owing much of its success to the foundations on which it was built in the early 20th century, when an Italian immigrant named James Mancini apprenticed himself to a baker at the tender age of 14.

One of OG Mancini's top legacies is his signature twist loaf; to this day, bakers still follow his original recipe and twisting method. Additionally, the stores sell a few dozen other doughy creations, like pepperoni and sausage rolls, and marbled rye loaves (which would be perfect for a roast beef sandwich). The years have passed and this bakery has endured, in part because, as one Trip Advisor reviewer proclaimed, Mancini's might just create and sell the "best Italian bread outside Italy."

Like most locally owned businesses, Mancini's Bakery comes from very humble beginnings. James Mancini worked hard at his apprenticeship, baking dozens of loaves of bread a night (one wonders how he then had the stamina to deliver all that bread the next morning). Seven years later, in 1926, his father built him his own space, on the exact same site where the current McKees Rocks location stands.

From that single-room bakery, Mancini toiled for the next 20 years. His brother, Ernest, joined the operation after returning from fighting in World War II, and he and James became partners in both business and baking. They continued in this fashion until 1977 delivered a series of blows to the family: First, in January, James passed away. Then, in July, Ernest's son, to whom the bakery was to be given, also died. That is how the bakery came to Ernest's daughter, Mary, who remains the owner to this day.

That single-room space from which James forged his dream has grown exponentially over the past 100 years, now comprising 10,000 square feet (and capable of churning out as many loaves of bread in a single day) and employing around 50 people. The bakery also requires over a dozen trucks to deliver bread to all the retail outlets and restaurants that sell and use it, including local supermarket chain Giant Eagle.