Nino Sgroi will tell you bakery life is hard, that he works day and night. He’s been baking bread since he was 12 years old. Yet even at 77, you’ll find him working most nights at the family business: Nino’s Italian Bakery and Deli, N88-W16683 Menomonee Falls. He has no intention of retiring.
Sgroi makes the breads himself, having perfected the recipes and techniques over six decades.
During the first weeks of December, the bakery sold more than 3,000 pounds of Italian cookies. Sgroi’s wife, Nina, makes more than four dozen varieties of cookies and biscotti daily with the help of her daughters and granddaughters. Nina also makes the spiedini, and the recipe for handmade meatballs comes directly from her mother-in-law.
Four of their five daughters also work in the shop now, along with two granddaughters. Lunch is their busiest time of day at the eat-in cafe, and they’re steady with orders for baked goods and Italian specialties, including the popular take-and-bake frozen items in the case. Whenever you visit, there is a member of the family in the bakery.
Becoming a baker
It started back in 1955. I was 12 years old. I came from Sicily with my family, my mom, dad and three sisters. I had cousins that worked at a local bakery. Of course, they took me there just to see the place.
One of my cousins, he was about 18, he was working steady at the place, and one night nobody showed up. He was alone, like it happens to me sometimes. My cousin called me and said, “Can you come and help me?”
I don’t know what to do. I’m only 12 and had never done it before. I’d seen bakeries, working with the hands, but I can try. He showed me what to do. That was it. I got hooked.
First recipe he mastered
Making bread. Italian bread. Traditional. And rolls. It’s the same dough for the Italian bread, the rolls, our French bread. French bread is just a name. Most of the people, they think it is different, but the dough is the same, just shaped different.
Madison to Milwaukee to Menomonee Falls
We started the bakery in Madison, February 28, 1968. We bought the bakery, my mom, dad and me and my wife. It was at the time a Jewish bakery. We made rye bread, challah, all kinds of stuff. We were supervised by the rabbi. For the two years we continued to do all pareve. I brought the tradition here, all pareve. …
The redevelopment authority came and said we had to move, the building was being torn down. They’d move you within 80 miles. One of my sisters lived in Riverwest and this man was selling a bakery. We bought that bakery in 1970. We opened the doors July 6, 1970. We were there 30 years before moving here. …
We bought the building in Menomonee Falls 1997. … The village of Menomonee Falls has been great to me. They loaned us almost a million dollars, with no down payment, just my skills.
Recipe
I started working when I was 8 years old in Sicily. I went to school half a day, and half a day I worked. It was after World War II and everything was a shamble. My dad was a farmer. My mom was a housewife. My mom did a lot of cooking at home. We grew our own wheat and harvested it, took it to the mill. My mom made the best homemade bread.
What keeps him going
The thing with the bakery is, it is a lot of work, but I love it and I enjoy it. I make my customers happy. That’s what I like. Everything is made here at the bakery. Everything is from scratch.
Family favorites
My wife makes all the Italian cookies. She makes the spiedini, the recipe for the meatballs that goes back to my mom. It’s all handed down from generation to generation.
Customer cravings
We have a bread on Sunday that we put out, we call it a surprise bread. That means what’s inside the bread is the surprise. It has all different meat, cheese and a little bit of jalapeño on there, nice and spicy. We go through so many of those.
His roots
I was born and raised in Sicily, and I can speak fluent Sicilian, but I speak Italian as well, because when I went to school under Mussolini you had to learn the Italian language. If you didn’t speak Italian in school they’d punish you. I didn’t know any English when I came here. Nothing.
Walking the walk
I’m 77 years old. I go to the gym. I walk five miles per day. I work nights. I get up at 11, and I come in and check what orders I have. Retiring, that word does not exist for me. I told my daughters I’ll probably work till I’m 100, then I’ll be looking forward to retiring. Maybe.
His favorite holiday
We do Christmas Eve, all of us: my five daughters and my five sons-in-law, 10 grandchildren, one great-grandchild. We all get together and my wife cooks. We share, and we’re happy.
Sunday dinner do
The best Sunday dinner is spaghetti and meatballs. My wife’s meatballs are made with pure ground beef and she puts in a little onion, garlic and bread crumbs. She mixes that with some water and eggs, puts them in the oven. Every recipe here is a family recipe handed down.
Rest and relaxation
I go back to Sicily, and I have fun. Here, I am working, and that is my fun. I went last year for a month. My wife owns the house there that her parents left for the four kids. They all inherited the house, so when we go back we have the house right by the ocean. It is beautiful. The picture on the wall, that’s the hometown.
RELATED: Italian food is in Felix Glorioso's blood, as he carries on at the family market
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email nstohs@journalsentinel.com.
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At 77, he still loves the family bakery life, late nights and all, in Menomonee Falls - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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