Bova's Bakery

134 Salem St.

Boston, MA 02113

(617) 523-5601

www.northendboston.com/bovabakery

I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll just start at the beginning ...

Mom and I are slowly becoming hardcore foodies, meaning we like to eat, try different foods, and drive to new and exciting places. On a recent quest to find the best cream pastries, Mom came across a Web site advertising all the lovely restaurants and bakeries in the North End of Boston. One of the bakeries was Bova's. Of course, since we're not anywhere near Boston, we'd never heard of it. However, after about a month of staring at the Web page and after using one of the pictures of the pastry cases as her computer's wallpaper, Mom was adamant that we pay a visit. I, on the other hand, was a little nervous about it. Not about the cream pastries, believe me, but about everything else. The drive. The location. The parking. The price. I was acting like an old lady, but being a foodie is hard work, so I sucked it up and got in the car. The drive couldn't have been better! There were no traffic issues, it was very easy to find (took us about approx. 45 minutes to get there), and I was able to score a parking space right across the street. Both Mom and I knew that this would probably never happen again, so we took lots of pictures and entered the bakery at just about 4:45 p.m.


First of all, the location was amazing. It is located right in the heart of Boston's North End, which Mom and I had never seen before. After we'd gotten off the highway, all we did is ooh and ahh at all the old buildings, little shops, and Italian restaurants and delis complete with sausages hanging in the window to give it that authentic feel. There was even a street fair for a local church that reminded us of the scene in The Godfather II where Don Fanucci strolls around in his white suit and fedora. We even read that Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, and John Hancock once strolled these streets. What a historic area! Once inside the bakery, which had both doors wide open allowing the smell of the baked goods and amaretto to persuade people off the street to come inside and buy something, we were in pastry Heaven. Mom usually spins in every bakery she enters because she tries to see everything at once, but today, I was spinning, too.


We didn't know where to look first. There was a large case of real cream pastries to the left, a large case of Italian cookies and breakfast-type goodies to the right, a few large shelves of freshly baked bread, a cooler filled with cupcakes and whole cakes, and a sandwich area with freshly made sandwiches and humongous Italian rice balls (arancini). They also had a standing case with several beautiful cakes, and a beverage cooler toward the back of the bakery so that people could grab a drink to wash down all the wonderful food. As we were staring at everything with our mouths open, we heard one of Bova employees tell a customer that if the breads are not used, they get thrown away. Obviously freshness comes first at this bakery. Something else that is important to Bova's Bakery is accessibility, and because of that, Bova's is open 24 hours a day! Do you know of any other bakery that is open at 3 a.m.? I don't.

Some of the sandwiches and calzones made with freshly baked bread.

(note the large rice balls in the back)

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Honestly, there was so much going on inside Bova's and there were so many people ordering food that I'm sure we didn't get to see every single item. However, we did see lemon squares, mousse cups, cupcakes, cookies, tiramisu, whoopie pies, cream puffs, turnovers, Neopolitans, cannolis with all different fillings, eclairs, jelly rolls, rum cakes, lobster tails, sfogliatelle, Sicilian pizza slices, calzones, salads, party subs, chocolate covered strawberries, fruit tarts, individual pieces of cake, and too many other things to name. Mom and I had a hard time choosing what we wanted, so when we were finally able to order, we just chose anything that was close to us plus their two famous pastries - the lobster tail and the sfogliatelle. What we liked about Bova's Bakery was that almost every pastry came in a mini size, which is awesome when you're going to order a large amount because it lets you try a lot of different things for less money.
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Some covered trays of cookies.

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The girl behind the counter was very helpful and patient with us because, like everyone else, we didn't know the names of the pastries so we just kept saying things like "that one," "this one," and "those things." We finally narrowed down our choices to two mini cream puffs, two mini lobster tails, two mini sfogliatelle, four mini cannolis (with four different fillings), a lemon square, a rum cake, and a circle bread that looked like a toilet seat. Our total came to $29.75. Wow! Not cheap, but hey, when are we here? Plus, you can't complain when what you're paying for is a quality item. I don't know what each particular pastry costs, but when I saw the numbers being plugged into the cash register, I noticed that a lot of things were over $2. Mom and I walked back to the car with our purchases, which came in clear, plastic trays, and put them into our trusty freezer bag. After taking a short ride around to see more of Boston's beautiful streets, we got back on the highway and headed for home.
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Some friendly faces that kids just love ... to eat!

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When we got back home, we decided to head to Colt State Park in Bristol, RI, to hang out and finally try some of these pastries. We couldn't wait anymore! After taking pictures of everything, we decided to try the lobster tail and sfogliatelle first. I grabbed a tail while Mom grabbed a sfogliatelle. Afterwards, we switched and had the opposite. Mom had been dying to try the sfogliatelle because she'd heard so much about it. She knew that it was a thinly multi-layered pastry which had a custard cream inside each of the layers. What she didn't expect - and neither did I, for that matter - was the crispy/chewy crunch. Our jaws really got a workout eating these, because once the thin layers broke away, we were left with dense, chewy pastry. The taste, however, was fantastic. The custard was cool, creamy, and had a great flavor. Mom was very glad that she finally got to try one from a real Italian bakery. The lobster tail was spectacular. It had a similar crisp exterior to the sfogliatelle, but was much easier to chew. It was filled with a delicious real cream that was extremely fresh, and we were happy to have a mini size as there was no way we could have eaten a whole one ourselves (although we'd like to take that challenge right now). The lobster tails were - by far - our favorite pastry of the day.
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Mini sfogliatelle, lobster tails, and a rum cake.

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Later in the day, we had the rum cake, and the next day we (and Dad) had the cannolis, cream puffs, and lemon square. At first I thought the rum cake had gotten ruined because it was so wet and sticky. However, Mom informed me that is what a real rum cake is supposed to be. The cakes are usually drenched with rum after they have been baked. You could get drunk on this cake! It was very flavorful, but we both wish it wasn't so wet. The lemon square was large and had a thick lemon filling, which is nice because sometimes there is more crust than filling. The crust was light and flaky, and the filling was cool, tangy, and had a great tart lemon flavor. The cream puffs were great! They had the same real cream inside as the lobster tail, but they had the puff pastry exterior that most cream puffs have. They were light, sweet, and the perfect size. The cannolis came in four flavors - ricotta, ricotta with chocolate chips, and chocolate and vanilla pudding. The pudding cannolis are something that we had never seen before. All of them had a really great cannoli shell, and we thought that all the fillings were fresh and delicious.

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Mini cream puffs, cannolis, and a lemon square.

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Onto the bread. Now, looking back, we shouldn't have thrown the bread into our freezer bag. Italian breads are notoriously hard, and freezing it didn't help. Even after it had been thawed for a day, the exterior was rock hard. We cut it anyway, sliced it up with butter, and enjoyed its great taste. However, it was really too hard to enjoy. On our next visit, we will just bring one home in a plain bag - no ice!

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Circle bread!

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All in all, our visit to Bova's Bakery was amazing. From the delicious pastries, to checking out the old-world style buildings and cobbledstoned streets, Mom and I really did have a great time on our mini-trip to Boston. Mom just loves walking where famous people walked years before, and she's already talking about coming back and visiting one of the many nearby Italian restaurants and delis for another delicious review. We really can't wait to go back.

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Bova's Bakery is open all day - every day. That means you can go right now. What are you waiting for?