Vitale's Bakery — Restaurant in St. Louis

tl;dr excellent fresh bread; bring cash.

This is my go-to bakery for fresh Italian and French bread. I have been to other ones in the area, but this one is clearly the best. It also helps that they have far more options than any other bakery that I have been to, such as French bread in several different length and wheat, as well as Italian bread in both white and wheat. They also have hamburger buns and other specialty breads. It is all great and far better than what you typically get at the grocery store. I also appreciate that they give you the option of getting the bread in either paper or plastic bags (which are helpful so it doesn't dry out as quick). Now with that in mind, I have not had much of their cookies and other sweet breads, but I have heard that they are good. What I can say though is that the cookies and other sweet breads are a little pricey for what I would personally pay, but I can't say whether that is really worth it as I haven't tried them myself. While on the topic of money, this business is Cash or Check ONLY. Make sure to bring some because you definitely will want to get food here if you come. Although I can understand a business wanting to avoid credit card fees by refusing to accept them, we are living in 2021 and it is generally an expectation that if you go to a business nowadays, you don't have to pay in cash. I'm sure they will change over eventually, plus I can't hold it against them too much as another bakery that is close by does...

I want to start off by saying 1 very important thing. I am 100% Italian America ,1st generation. 2ND I am from the East Coast originally moved here 7 months ago. I can tell & smell if a bakery is authentic Italian just by the smell. Yes I wrote that. I was excited to learn that there was a Italian community here. The 1st time I went about 2 months ago I was with my toddler that I take care of. We were greeted warmly and was asked if my little one could have a cookie. ( Unfortunately his Mom does not allow him to have sweets) I looked around and was happy to see lots of familiar cookies and pastries. Even looked over at the frigs, where they had prepared meatball & pasta. I left with meatballs, tortellini, and the cookie that was supposed to go to the little one.melted in my mouth. Came back again about 2 weeks later for the meatball & tortellini & a sweet for me. Today was back again after trying the "Other Bakery" .Vitale's is a superior quality bakery over the other bakery by leaps and...

Even if you don’t watch King of the Hill, you can still visit the king of The Hill’s dessert scene: right here at Vitale’s

What makes them the king you ask? The cookies were good, but the cakes were absolutely magical. The German chocolate cake I had here was so much better than the German chocolate cake I had from a German bakery earlier this week, it was like putting prime Albert Pujols in a batting competition vs your run-of-the-mill high school JV baseball player.

And when I took my first bite into the Tartufo, I saw hallucinations of an Italian flag and I began singing the Italian national anthem in the middle of the store, even though I don’t know a lick of Italian.

But buyers beware: these cakes are fit for a king. They’re extremely rich, just like any king would be. Don’t let that scare you away completely, as they have fruitier options which I didn’t try which are likely a little less decadent.

German chocolate cake & tartufo angi...