The sign on the brick wall outside is old school and humble, just like what’s been happening inside for over 100 years: Boulangerie Marguerita’s wooden floors are still dusted with flour, the pressed tin ceilings are intact, the shop’s original long counter is still in use, tucked under the stairwell, and the aroma of bread baking wafts over the neighbourhood at the southern end of Little Italy five days a week.
Since 1910, bakers have been fashioning bread by hand at Marguerita’s huge wooden table at the heart of its operation. The original sand-insulated, 12-foot brick-lined oven that can bake 160 loaves of the bakery’s signature crusty pagnotta at a time is still there. Virtually all the other equipment is either original or at least over 50 years old, save for a new mixer bought ten years ago and a boiler that yields crunchier crusts. A sheeter helps shape pizza dough, but there’s nothing else automated in the bread-making process other than two vintage mixers.
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