WDEL | by Mike Phillips
Bing’s Bakery on Main Street in Newark officially celebrated its 75th anniversary with a ribbon cutting celebration on Friday, May 14, 2021.
Carla Guzzi and her husband Tom, who was head baker at the time, bought the bakery from Selena Bing in 2005 shortly before Mrs. Bing’s death at the age of 91.
Guzzi said it’s actually a double anniversary for the bakery because the Bings bought the original bakery from the Fader Family, who had established it in 1871.
“It’s 150 years of a continuous bakery on Main Street, but 75 years since Bing’s,” said Guzzi. “Mrs. Bing hand selected who she wanted to carry on her legacy and that was Tom.”
State Representative John Kowalko (D – 25) has been a customer of Bing’s Bakery for decades, including his wedding cake and one for his daughter.
“Small businesses, and thriving small businesses, and their employees and the people that own them, are the backbone of the Delaware economy,” said Kowalko who presented proclamations from the Delaware House and Senate to Guzzi marking the milestone.
She admits she had her doubts at the beginning of the pandemic.
“If you would have spoken to me in April of last year I was very concerned that ‘are we going to make it through it,'” said Guzzi. “There certainly was help that was coming for small businesses but it came slow and it came late. So you had to really change your business strategy and that’s what we did.
“Now we are more busy than we’ve ever been. Through it all our business, our clients, our customer base, they hung with us, and they trusted us during this pandemic to deliver them a safe product, and that touches me the most,” said Guzzi.
“We had Mother’s Day and we were the busiest we’ve ever been in fifteen years. I think Mrs. Bing would be very, very proud of us.”