To fully appreciate Buono Bakery today, step back to its beginnings at 1117 Hylan Blvd. in 1964. That starting point helps explain Staten Island’s enduring appetite for Italian baked goods and marks when Buono began to take shape as the bakery generations know today.
That’s when Joseph Buono took over a bakery operation in what was then a quieter stretch of Grasmere. The neighborhood moved at a slower, almost sleepy pace. Where Buono’s current neighbor Carvel now stands was once Mr. Williams, a hair salon turning out coiffed women in bouffants and flip curls, while bakeries like La Monte, Marchesi’s, Alfonso’s and Renato’s dotted the borough.
