Angelo Sciortino left Buenos Aires for Morristown in 1972 with $50 in his pocket and no English in his head.
Now, many bakeries later, he can scarcely believe his good fortune.
The Swiss Chalet Bakery & Cafe, a local landmark for four decades, has reopened in a bright, spacious shop catty-corner from its old home across the intersection of Elm and South streets.
“I walk in and find love here,” enthused the Argentine-Italian baker, as sun streamed through huge windows amid swirling aromas of cupcakes and pastries.
Angelo was unsure at first about moving the venture, which he has co-owned for a dozen years. It took more than a year of expensive renovations to the former headquarters of the Magla glove company to make it a reality. Bill Moran, Angelo’s business partner, convinced him it was for the best.
“It’s going great. We’re shocked!” joked Bill, two weeks into the “soft launch.”
“We needed to make it happen for the customers. They needed more space,” Angelo acknowledged.
Now they have it, and then some.
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With 8,000 square feet, the new digs are four times larger than their wedge-shaped predecessor, affectionately dubbed the “shoebox bakery” by Swiss Chalet founder Charlie Wurster.
The new space is big enough for a pizza oven, enabling a breakfast and lunch menu for the first time. Free Wi-Fi, ample seating and customer parking are fast making the new Swiss Chalet a meeting destination, not just a coffee stop. It’s especially convenient to town hall.
At the ceremonial ribbon-cutting on Friday, Mayor Tim Dougherty hailed the Swiss Chalet as “one of the finest bakeries in New Jersey!”
So far, customers are wearing delicious smiles, too.
‘NO SHORTCUTS’
Lynne Pagano, a Swiss Chalet regular for 10 years, stopped by after dropping off her kids at the Peck School.
“They have really good coffee, and an excellent cafe. I love the new space. It’s beautiful. It’s much larger,” said the Short Hills resident, who left with a peanut-butter-cup birthday cake for her 11-year-old.
Nancy Murray of Mendham was enjoying a Danish, while her niece, law student Erin Gallery, sampled the pizza.
“I think it’s fabulous,” Nancy said of the new space. “The food’s good. They have a great future here. I’m very pleased for them. I think they will do well in this location…It’s bright. There’s lots of room.”
“It looks great. It will be a nice hangout for families,” Morristown resident Cindi Au-Kramer said during a recent visit to buy cupcakes for her kids, Emmanuelle, 5 1/2, and Julian, 2 1/2.
The Swiss Chalet is a family hangout for Angelo as well. While he oversees the kitchen, his wife Antonia runs the front of the bakery. Their son Johnny left a good job with a hotel chain to manage day-to-day operations, and their daughters, Jennifer and Sandy, also pitch in.
But it was Bill, a partner in the property management firm Marshall & Moran, who coaxed Angelo back into the bakery business when the Swiss Chalet was for sale early in the new millennium.
Angelo suffered from bakery burnout. He grew up around his parents’ Italian pastry shop in Argentina; at 18 he was working almost round-the-clock at Denzinger’s, a former bakery in Morristown’s Burger King strip mall. German owners and Swiss bakers were stern task-masters. It was a priceless education.
“There are no shortcuts if you want to create the best product,” Angelo learned.
From cleaning floors, he quickly worked his way up, volunteering for overnight shifts and studying all aspects of the bakery business. Cake decorating is an art that takes years to master, he said, because of all the holidays. They come too fast to linger on any one.
Angelo augmented his education by moonlighting for Charlie Wurster at the Swiss Chalet–until Denzinger’s caught wind of it.
Eventually, Angelo bought Denzinger’s. At various times he owned the Three Crown Bakery in Denville, a beach-front Italian restaurant in Buenos Aires and a bakery in Fort Myers, Fla. He also ran the bakery department of a supermarket, and appeared on the Food Network.
Astonishingly, Angelo’s waistline seems impervious to the cannoli and mini-eclairs that he loves. “I move a lot,” he explained with a grin.
BORN TO BAKE
By the early 1990s, all the 20-hour days got to him. He earned a real estate license and went to work for Bill, who has Speedwell Avenue properties near a building Angelo owns. (The restaurant La Casa de Pollo is Angelo’s tenant.)
Every morning Bill stopped for coffee at the Swiss Chalet, a short walk from his office. When Charlie Wurster, a native of Switzerland, told him he was selling the place, Bill perked up.
“He couldn’t find a buyer,” Bill recounted. “I didn’t know anything about baking. Angelo did.”
Angelo protested.
“I say, ‘No, Bill. No more bakeries for me!'”
Bill is a persuasive guy. Angelo finally faced the facts.
“I love to bake,” he said.
The Swiss Chalet bucked market trends; supermarkets have killed many “full-line” bakeries, the partners said. Years later, they knew it was risky to mess with success by moving the establishment.
“We didn’t know what to expect. It’s not like there’s a shortage of food places in Morristown,” said Bill, who is partial to the checkerboard cake. “We thought in the beginning we might lose a little business. Being there 40 years, maybe customers might not like the new approach.”
It’s been a pleasant surprise.
“We’ve had tons of new customers. We didn’t expect that right off the bat,” Bill said. “And old customers are delighted by it.”
Nobody is more thrilled than Angelo, continuing the tasty tradition that defines him.
“Every piece of pastry we do is a masterpiece,” he said.
