Monteleone's Bakery - A Reminder of Jersey City's Past

Monteleone's Bakery, near Journal Square, is the embodiment of Jersey City past. Housed on the ground floor of a small brick building with a wall of shelves and a couple of display counters, you get the impression upon walking in that not much has changed since they first opened several decades ago and truthfully, probably not much has.

Primarily an Italian bakery with countless varieties of cookies, there's a strong sense of the traditional and classic in all the baked goods. Nothing is baked to be a visually-inspiring creation, but just a sweet dessert that becomes a taste of the nostalgically familiar, evident even in the boxes tied up with red and white string.


When I visited, I decided to branch out and skip the much raved-about cookies, instead getting an eclair, a piece of crumb cake, and in recognition of tradition, a cannoli. While I was there trying to decide what to get, at least three people came in to pick up specialty cakes they had ordered. No one was driving hours out of their way, but you definitely got a sense of the neighbors coming into their neighborhood bakery just as they always had.

All three items were good....but not mind-blowing, at least not for me. The main problem with all of them was they were too sweet. That may be a plus for some people, but for my tastes, it was a little overwhelming although they did stop short of being cloying.

The crumb cake, although not bad, was probably the weakest of the bunch. It was fairly dry and the icing on top overpowered the buttery taste of the crumb topping. If there was just a bit less of the icing and a bit more flavor and volume to the crumb, I could see this being a wonderful mid-day treat.

The slightly-tough choux pastry of the eclair was not the best I've ever had, but it's also not the worst and the pastry cream inside was quite good - rich and smooth despite its sweetness and there was plenty of it which I appreciated.

However, the cannoli was the winner among these three. The shell was crisp, the filling again too sweet, but the sweetness was broken up by mini chocolate chips and it was quite a good representation of something that can be so easily ruined.

All in All
While I can't highly recommend anything I tried, I'd certainly eat them again though I might be tempted to try some of the favorites like the rainbow cookies or a rum cake instead. I will say portions were quite generous and certainly inexpensive which makes it a great place to solve  a sugar craving. Monteleone's isn't a gourmet bakery where you will run into exotic flavor combinations or new pastry technology, but it is a wonderful traditional neighborhood bakery worth going into if you're in the area just for the
experience.