Baltimore's Maranto Bakery On A Roll For 103 Years

Until Friday morning, I had never set foot on Pearl Street in Baltimore, and, truth be told, I didn't even know we had one. I also somehow missed the fact that on this Pearl Street, tucked behind Lexington Market on the west side of town, there is an Italian bakery, and this Italian bakery has been operating in Baltimore since the year World War I broke out in Europe.

That would be 1914. That would be 103 years of warm, crusty, dusted-with-cornmeal bread coming out of 244 Pearl Street: Vienna loaves and kaiser rolls and sub rolls in five lengths — six-inch, eight-inch, 10-inch, 11-inch, 12-inch, plus a three-footer on demand.

F&S Maranto might be the last family-owned, standalone Italian bread baker in Baltimore. It has been at the same location, near the corner of Pearl and West Saratoga streets, since two brothers from Sicily, Frank and Salvatore Maranto, established their business with coal-fired brick ovens.

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