The year was 1973. As many had done before him, Pete Christofolo–a plumbing contractor living on Long Island, New York–decided to move his family West. Arizona, in particular.

Arriving in Tempe and knowing no-one, Pete decided he wanted to do something different—and proceeded to open a couple of delicatessens near-by Arizona State University. Rather than be like all of the other delis in the area, Pete opted to source very high quality meats and cheeses from the East Coast for his soon-to-be very large base of customers. As the word began to spread about Pete’s authentic Italian provisions, Capistrano’s Deli became a new destination for many people around Arizona who knew the difference.

As Pete’s family business began to grow, he quickly realized that he needed to also offer his customers really good-tasting Italian breads and rolls to go with the meats and cheeses. That realization gave rise to Pete leasing 500 square feet of space next to his deli and opening his own bakery. As Arizona’s economy began to grow, so did Pete’s deli and bakery businesses—to the extent Pete had to find more space for his bakery in order to accommodate the many Mom-and-Pop restaurants, pizzerias, hotels, and caterers who were banging down his door to get his delicious bakery products.

Eventually, Pete located 5,000 square feet of space and moved the bakery, thinking this would take care of the problem. Soon after moving the bakery, Pete began to realize how-much he enjoyed the bakery business and decided to sell his two delicatessens so he could devote all of his time to the bakery.

However, success continued to grow and Pete’s bakery had run out of space—again. Thus, he located a much-larger building in the area and moved into it in 2001 . This served Pete and his customers well for many years until—in 2011–the bakery was moved again to its present (larger) location on South 24th Street in Phoenix.

Since opening our doors in the early 70’s, our Mission has been simple: to listen to what each of our valued customers wants from us, then figure out how to meet or exceed their expectations—every day—in our pursuit of true customer satisfaction with every bite.

We are proud of our heritage and hope you have enjoyed our little “slice of history”!