A classic Philly roll bakery shuts down

D'Ambrosio Bakery in Grays Ferry - one of the city's longtime roll bakeries - shut down today, apparently after a deal to sell the nearly 75-year-old company was scuttled, according to sources in the baking industry.

D'Ambrosio, which employed about 60 people, was sold by the founding family in 2005 to Gatehouse Ventures of Berwyn, a leveraged-buyout specialist that only a few years ago was building a portfolio of bread bakeries, including Amalfitano's in Delaware. In 2006, D'Ambrosio took over certain assets of Vilotti-Pisanelli Baking.

D'Ambrosio's corporate history traces its founding to 1939 when Vincent D'Ambrosio created a small bakery in the basement of his family home in South Philly. In 1977, it took over a former supermarket at 31st and Reed Streets.

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