Meet us where the taste of Italy is baked into the bread
Assunta Turano, dubbed “Mamma Susi” by her customers, once ran the small bakeshop that her husband, Mariano, founded in 1962. That 1,000-square-foot bakeshop led to today’s Turano Baking Co., a multi-state operation supplying grocery stores with the old-fashioned round bread that the Turano family enjoyed back in Calabria, Italy.
Mariano and Assunta Turano moved with their three sons from Italy in 1954, packing their bread recipes and a dream for a better life.
They built that life in the small shop where Mariano baked the bread and Assunta ran the store. They offered delivery service for their neighbors and word of mouth grew.
In 1967 they relocated to Roosevelt Road in Berwyn, which is where the storefront for this major bread company still serves fresh bread out of Mamma Susi’s Bake Shop.
Only today, the Turano Baking Co. also runs five large bread-making facilities in four different states, making more than 250 bread products for thousands of restaurants and grocery stores.
It’s at the Berwyn storefront where you can see where it all began with a fresh-baked loaf of bread and a free cup of coffee. The bakeshop was re-named “Mamma Susi’s” in Assunta Turano’s honor in 2008.
The bakery is open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5:30pm and Saturday from 8am to 4pm (closed Sunday).
A loaf of the traditional round bread called Pano Turano is $4.25. Any purchase of $5 or more includes a free cup of coffee.
The three sons that Mariano and Assunta Turano brought with them to America helped their parents build the business from the get-go. Renato, Umberto, and Giancarlo preserved the traditions and techniques taught to them by their parents when they took over the family operation.
Then they taught those techniques to the next generation.
You might just find the third generation of Turanos manning the oven at Mama Susi’s, the local bakeshop for the Turano Baking Co. The Turano family continues in the legacy of bread-making that their grandparents brought to America.
Mamma Susi’s is located at 6501 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn. The bakery is just over a half-mile from the Oak Park stop on the CTA Blue Line or a 15-minute drive west of downtown Chicago.
