Luberto’s Pastry Shop
There aren't a lot of experiences in life better than walking into a great bakery. It's even better when it's a classic Italian bakery, and it's even better than that if it's an old school family run and operated Italian bakery, and that's exactly where we've landed today.
We are on Broadway in Revere Massachusetts, at a legendary spot called Luberto’s Pastry Shop. And for the past 40 years, the Luberto family have been serving up all of your favorite Italian treats: cookies, cakes, cannoli, lobster tail, breads, pizza. And for generations, families have been coming here for every occasion, every birthday, and every time they want to eat something delicious. First of all, this bakery doesn't look like any other bakery I have ever been to in my life. The first thing that catches your eye are the pastry cases. I mean, this might be the most fully stocked and stacked pastry case I have seen in years. I would describe the esthetic here as early 1980s Las Vegas. It's part nightclub and part cafe. And think about this, what was the last time you went into a bakery that had mirrors on the ceiling? What are these guys into?
It should come as no surprise. The number one selling item here at Luberto’s is the cannoli. The key to a great cannoli is the shell. And just look at the crispiness, the crunchiness that nice golden brown. And on the inside, it is piped fresh with that ricotta mixture. You can get it plain, you can get a chocolate dipped. You can get chocolate chips. This is also one of the only places around that makes a real Italian cream. Cannoli. A typical ricotta filling is bright white. This one is yellow. It's made with high quality dairy, some sugar, and egg yolks. And now it's time for the cannoli taste test. That's my favorite time. Super crunchy outside, and it is so impossibly smooth, rich, creamy, sweet, but ultra delicious.
Everybody loves a cannoli, but my all time favorite Italian pastry is the lobster tail. And I'm telling you right now, I guarantee you have never seen a lobster tail this big or this delicious in your entire life. If you're not familiar with a lobster tail pastry, there is no lobster in it. The dough is very crispy and crunchy on the outside and on the inside, it is super filled with Italian pastry cream and some mascarpone. This thing is ridiculously huge. It's got to weigh three pounds. It's the size of a football. We're going to open wide. This is what I call a ‘going to the chair food’. You ask me what I want for my last meal. I think this is going to be the dessert course, that is insanely awesome.
Listen, I'm a sucker for cream filled desserts. And this is another one that you're going to love, the traditional Luberto’s eclair. This is a big eclair. Each one is about half a foot long. You have that classic pâte à choux dough. Really holds that nice strip of pastry cream inside and then on top, a nice thick layer of chocolate frosting, creamy, sweet, chocolatey. I do declare that is a great eclair.
They even do half moon cookies here, and they are a beauty to behold, half vanilla icing and half chocolate frosting, and on the bottom it's a cake. They actually do two different styles of the half moons here, vanilla or chocolate. I'm a traditionalist, so I like the straight up vanilla classic half moon cookie. You have the frosting on top, and it's not that waxy frosting. It's nice fresh icing. The key, as they told you on Seinfeld, is to get a bite with a little bit of both frostings on top, little vanilla, little chocolate, one big bite. ‘Look to the cookie, Phantom fans, look to the cookie’.
The real, hidden jewel of the Luberto’s menu is the pizza. This is picture perfect, perfectly executed, old school bakery pizza. The dough here is the key. It is so soft, so supple. It's made with some oil in it, which really keeps that fluffiness. The sauce is definitely on the sweet side, which makes it very, very addictive. It's fully covered in cheese from end to end, and there are just simple, classic toppings, cheese, pepperoni, peppers, onions, mushrooms, nothing too crazy, straightforward. Keep it old school. It's just pillowy pizza perfection, the Triple P.
Obviously, this is a classic Italian bakery. But over the past 40 years, they've added some Latin desserts to the menu as well. I love the flan and the Tres Leches. Just check out this flan. Nice, dense and rich custard swimming in a pool of that caramel sauce. You cannot stop eating this thing. The Tres Leches cake is extremely popular here. It's a sponge cake base. That they literally soak in milk. Trust me on this, this cake will not dry out ever.
So whether you want the world's greatest bakery pizza or the biggest lobster tail in world history, you can get it right here at Luberto’s Pastry Shop.
