“We mix old dough with the new dough,” James Caputo said about making Sicilian bread—a staple heritage loaf available at his store, Caputo’s Bake Shop on Court Street. “There isn’t much demand for Sicilian bread these days,” he said. “But I refuse to stop making it because it’s a source of pride for me.” A walk down Court Street in Carroll Gardens is met by bodegas, new Hipster coffee, as well as vestiges of decades past. Two community staples bear matching names, a similar history, and tell a story of changing with the times in order to remain put.
James Caputo’s family moved to the United States from Sicily and opened the Bake Shop in 1904, at the time selling only two or three types of bread. They have expanded the range quite a bit since. Then there is the other Caputos. Frank Caputo’s family moved to Brooklyn in 1973 and opened Caputo’s Fine Foods, modeled after a similar shop they had in Bari, Italy, six blocks from the other Caputo’s – the families are not related.
