84 Madison Street

The address is the pre-KV home of reporter Shirley Lew, who wrote this recent article about summer memories. It includes a mention of Savoia Bakery.  Shirley now resides in New Jersey. Like KV "brother" Paul Levine, she was a former editor of the Seward World.

Brooklyn Fancy Cakes......4th Ward Origins

An excerpt from the 12/17 nytimes
Brooklyn’s Allure? Fancy Cakes, Dahling
By HELENE STAPINSKI
Because of cheap rents and relative proximity to the affluent if demanding customers of Manhattan, at least five bakeries have settled within a two-mile radius of one another. “You’re not going to get customers to come out and meet you in Queens,” Ms. Gamble said. “But they will come in to Brooklyn.”.....
A few blocks up Columbia Street from Elegantly Iced is Nine Cakes, which Betsy Thorleifson, a former harpsichordist from Washington State, opened just over a year ago, focusing on tiered specialty cakes. In Carroll Gardens, Karyn Kwok opened Kakes in May, and this summer displayed her cartoonish cakes, including giant cheeseburgers and Oreos, in her Sackett Street window. Two miles away, in a second-floor kitchen, is Made in Heaven, which moved from Staten Island to Gowanus two years ago in search of a “higher-end clientele,” Lisa Zagami said. She runs the business with her husband and 21-year-old daughter.
The Zagamis trace their baking roots to Lisa’s father, Anthony, who ran Savola, an Italian bakery on the Lower East Side, for 35 years. Lisa’s husband, Victor, worked at Brooklyn’s best Italian bakeries — like Villabate and Argento’s — before becoming a correction officer for 20 years. After he retired, “we dragged him back in,” Lisa Zagami said.
Their daughter, Victoria, graduated recently from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and worked in Manhattan with Colette Peters — whom Lisa Zagami calls “the Picasso of cakes” — before joining her parents’ 15-year-old wedding cake operation.
Victoria Zagami’s first edible artwork was helping her mother design her first communion cake at age 7. Until she joined the family business a year ago, the shop did mostly traditional tiered wedding and special-occasion cakes. “Now we’re doing more intricate, whimsical things,” she said....

29-35 Catherine Street: Then And Now

Savoia's Pastry Shop: 35 Catherine Street

I got these from Lisa Zagemi yesterday

Hi David, It's Lisa, sorry I haven't been in touch. Here
are a few photos my dad, Anthony Favazza,  gave me of the front of the bakery. I am going to see if I have see any others. BTW everyone called my dad Sonny.

Lisa carries on the family tradition along with her husband and her sister Francine.
She owns:
Made in Heaven Cakes
Custom and Specialty Cakes
530 Third Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215

At the KV Reunion back in May, Nancy Sing Bock talked about how special summers were because of
the ices from Savoia

Savoia Lives On!: Part 2

Above: An assortment of pics from Lisa Zagami's Made in Heaven Cakes
An email from Lisa, there's old photos of Savoia on the way!

Hi David, That was so SWEET!! My whole family was so excited to see your post. My dad was loving the picture. He has some old pictures I would love to send you. Just let me know. Again thank you that was a nice memory. Best Lisa

A comment left on the previous Savoia post:

Ken said...
In the late 1960s, I went to P.S. 1, across the street from Savoia. In the early 1970s, I went to J.H.S. 65 Annex, just two blocks further away. The neighborhood was already very Chinese, and so the bakery had many Chinese customers, of whom I was one who occasionally ventured in for sweet pastries and birthday cakes. I can still imagine biting into a Savoia cream puff, my favorite! Lisa, it is possible I ran into you a few times in the store at the time but never talked to you, but I am glad to hear that you stayed in the business and opened up your own cake shop as an adult! And thanks to Sol for this website for evoking the nostalgia of growing up in and around Knickerbocker Village!

from Paul Kefer

Savoia's was the ultimate family bakery. All of their cakes and pastries were delicious; especially their whipped cream cakes, which were a staple in my house.
Let's not forget the jelly doughnuts! I still haven't found a better one yet. The Italian ices (homemade, I think) were a treat in the summertime.

from Son of Seth, in one of his free-form remembrances

By the way, Howie, thank for that maple walnut.  It was delaycious.  Still miles ahead of Junior's and any other similar establishment.  Savoia oh boya. You know what I'm saying here. We would load up on candy by the quarter pound from that obscure bakery that was just around the corner on Madison Street, quarter block from Catherine - around the corner from the Brokowsky's fruit store, Gogol's and the pharmacy on the corner. Next to the newstand. Remember? By the bus stop. See what I'm saying? (In your mind, can you see it?) Bakery had golden and tan tile design but couldn't hold a candle to Savoia. No marble floors either. Excellent. Savoia's is fine with me.  Maple walnut cake? Or maybe I'll go with the strawberry short cake. Or if the season is right the peach short cake.  Whatever.  Ices in every flavor?  Can't go wrong with their ices.  All rightee then.

Savoia's Lives On!

I got this email yesterday

Hi David, My name is Lisa Zagami (Favazza) My dad had a bakery on Catherine street years ago. I was wondering if you remembered it and would you know him. His name is Anthony Favazza (sonny).

I did some googling and discovered Lisa has this business

Made in Heaven Cakes was developed from a childhood inspiration. Lisa's father, Anthony Favazza, owned the successful Savoia Bakery in New York City and it was there that Lisa learned the business and decided then that she would one day open her own specialty cake shop.
In 1995 that dream came true. Along with her husband Victor and her design team, Made in Heaven Cakes was created and has flourished over 10 years creating beautiful wedding and specialty cakes for their customers.
Their experiences from their culinary and art school education enabled them to incorporate current trends, designs and colors to create a variety of artistic cakes to make their customers events special and unforgettable.
Lisa works closely with her clients to customize a cake that expresses who they are and of course, what works with the overall wedding design.
Made in Heaven Cakes
530 Third Ave., nr. 13th St., Park Slope, Brooklyn; 718-788-2727