Bake shop brings old world recipes to West Tampa

Housewife Bakery serves up old-world recipes in Tampa

About seven blocks west of Zoo Tampa is a bakery that will help you travel back in time to the old recipes from Italy and Argentina that gave Tampa the international flavors of the immigrants who founded West Tampa and Ybor City.

TAMPA - About seven blocks west of Zoo Tampa is a bakery that will help you travel back in time to the old recipes from Italy and Argentina that gave Tampa the international flavors of the immigrants who founded West Tampa and Ybor City.

What they're saying:

"Housewife Bakery is an Italian-American Bakery originally," Owner Alejandro Bidone said. "We are from Argentina, at the end of the day, it's a mix of all of the European pastries that the immigrants took to Argentina in the 1900s."

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For the patron looking for savory items, Bidone's kitchen crew crafts stuffed potatoes, sacciata, chorizos, Argentinian pizza, Cuban sandwiches, medianoche sandwiches, tequenos, cachitos, crab corquettes and empanadas.

Empanadas

"We make Empanadas," Bidone said, "We make spinach, beef, chicken, beef and cheese, ham and cheese, all sorts of empanadas."

For the person seeking the sweet side of baked goods, they offer all sorts of handmade goodies topped with chocolate, stuffed with cream, covered in powdered sugar and more.

Looking for that guava turnover? They have that. Looking for handmade cannolis? They have those too.

"We make all sorts of things, from cakes to pastries to (sic) desserts," Bidoni said. "Our coffee is delicious, we are world-famous because of our coffee."

Housewife Bake Shop coffee

They serve up traditional café con leche and other freshly brewed favorites that would make the most snobbish coffee connoisseur happy.

And keeping the customer happy has always been what the Housewife Bake Shop is about.

"We have a place where we tell people come, and they can sit down for hours, nobody going to bother you here," Bidone said.

What's next:

To try out Housewife Bake Shop for yourself, they are located at 6821 North Armenia Avenue near Sligh Avenue in Tampa. You can learn more about them and see their catering and online ordering menus here.