Carlo's Bakery has operated on Washington Street in Hoboken since 1910, when Carlo Guastaffiro opened the shop that Bartolo Valastro Sr. bought in 1964, per the company's own published history — making the block between Third and Fourth streets home to one of New Jersey's oldest continuously operating bakeries. The television era, beginning with TLC's "Cake Boss" in 2009, turned the storefront into a destination that reportedly draws lines around the corner in tourist season. The shop's foundation, per its own menu, never moved: the cannoli, the lobster tails, the butter cookies by the pound.
VIP Jersey Express is an independent news publication — the people of New Jersey are the VIPs — and this profile is built from the company's published history and named coverage, not from a visit; no conversation with the shop is implied.
How did a family bakery become a landmark?
Through three documented generations. Guastaffiro's shop passed in 1964 to Bartolo Valastro Sr., a baker whose family had worked Italian pastry kitchens; his son Bartolo "Buddy" Valastro Jr. took over at 17 after his father's death in 1994, per the biographical accounts published with his television career. The shop's fame beyond Hudson County came in 2009, when TLC's "Cake Boss" premiered following the family and staff through custom-cake commissions; the series ran for a decade and made the Washington Street storefront a stop on the New Jersey tourist circuit, as the city's own visitor materials have noted since.
What does the television fame change on the block?
Documented changes, attributed. Foot traffic: Hudson County's tourism economy now includes the bakery among Hoboken's named attractions, per the county and city visitor guides. The queue: the shop's own operations adjusted — a ticketed waiting system during peak periods, per the company's visitor information, with the storefront's original bake case sharing space with a larger café footprint on Washington Street. And the family's business expanded well beyond: multiple locations across New Jersey and beyond, per the company's site, though the Washington Street shop remains the flagship the coverage returns to. What the fame did not change, per the shop's own telling: the pastry case's core lineup traces to the recipes of the founders' era.
What should a visitor actually know?
Practical facts, from the shop's published visitor information and named coverage:
- Location: Washington Street between Third and Fourth, Hoboken — the original storefront, with additional seating areas added in the television era.
- What it's known for: cannoli filled to order, lobster tails, and the custom celebration cakes the television series documented.
- When to go: weekday mornings run quietest; weekends and holiday weeks carry the longest waits, per the shop's own guidance.
- Getting there: Hoboken's train and ferry connections put the shop within walking distance of both — the PATH's Hoboken terminal among them.
Why the shop matters beyond the show
Because a century of continuity on one block is its own story, television or no. Washington Street rebuilt after the floods of 2012, when Hurricane Sandy's surge put Hudson riverfront businesses under water — the bakery among the businesses documented in the storm's local coverage, closing and reopening in the weeks after. The shop that reopened then was the same one Guastaffiro opened in 1910 and the Valastros carried forward: a family business on a commercial spine that has held Hoboken's Italian-American history alongside every new decade of the city's changes. The cameras found that. They didn't make it.
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