Gambino's Bakery

A New Orleans centered business from the very start, Gambino's grew out of Big Easy traditions and a local's home. In the early 1920's Beulah Ledner began baking out of her uptown kitchen on Lowerline Street. Her treats became a fast favorite of Tulane and Newcomb students and faculty and grew both her name and her baking business beyond the four walls of her home and into a location on Claiborne. Known as the "Doberge Queen of New Orleans," Beulah invented the classic Crescent City cake and became a baking legend. Her bakery made the perfect marriage in 1946 when Beulah decided to sell her retail location and recipes to a man named Joe Gambino. Gambino began operating the bakery, which remained named the "Beulah Ledner Bakery," and stayed loyal to Beulah's creations. His pastries and cakes quickly gained notoriety in New Orleans and in 1949 he decided to reopen the bakery under his name, thus becoming "Joe Gambino's Bakery." His uptown business quickly expanded, allowing him to open multiple locations throughout New Orleans, into the surrounding suburbs, and eventually spreading into southern Louisiana. Thriving through the end of the twentieth century, it wasn't until 2005 that Gambino's suffered a setback. Hurricane Katrina buried all of the New Orleans locations beneath ten feet of water and Gambino's was forced to close several of their stores. But the Gambino name persisted through the devastation, reopening stores in Metairie and continuing to serve New Orleanians the cakes and treats they had become famous for. With almost 100 years of tradition, Gambino's Bakery has kept craftsmanship and quality as its hallmarks. To this day Gambino's bakes its pastries and treats fresh daily and it is Gambino's alone that bakes by hand Beulah Ledner's original doberge cake recipe exactly. They have made New Orleans flavors and style accessible across the country and continue to bake with passion to make the best desserts possible.