Cucchiello’s Will Move to Saugus

By John Lynds

It was announced that Cucchiello’s Bakery will leave East Boston and head to Saugus. The move marks the end of a 70-year storied history of the widely popular family-owned bakery. Clockwise from top, Cucchiello’s Owner Michael Cucchiello Sr. puts the finishing touches on Easter bread. A display of the bread that made Cucchiello’s a mainstay in East Boston. Cucchiello’s famous cannoli.

If you grew up in Eagle Hill in the 1970s and 1980s there was a time, when provisions were low on Fridays,  your mother would give you a dollar as you left for school. You immediately knew what that dollar was for and would head out the door and down to Cucchiello’s Bakery (formerly Logan Bakery) on the corner of Princeton and Putnam Streets. There you’d get a couple of slices of bakery pizza for lunch. When lunch rolled around at school, the neighborhood kids would all pull a  paper bag from their backpacks and devour this Eastie treat.

For seven decades Cucchiello’s was the go-to bakery for bread, pastries, pies, cookies and other treats. The bread was so desired during Sunday dinner in Eastie that if you brought home an inferior loaf of Italian bread you’d be immediately sent back out to get a proper loaf from Cucchiello’s. Your parents could immediately tell it wasn’t from Cucchiello’s if the loaf didn’t have one thick slice in the middle due to a missing blade on the bakery’s bread slicer.

Over the years, Cucchiello’s would occupy several locations finally ending up in Day Square at the former Dominico’s Restaurant on Bennington Street.

However, it was announced last week that the 70 year storied history of Cucchiello’s Bakery as a mainstay in Eastie will be no more.

The Cucchiello Family has decided to move their operation to Saugus after the building they rented in Day Square was sold.

“It’s with bitter sweet sorrow that Cucchiello’s Bakery will be moving to Saugus in Cogliano Plaza on Lincoln Avenue,” the Cucchiello Family said in a statement. “Leaving East Boston is very, very hard for us but we are looking to make some new memories in Saugus. We thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts for your dedication and for your friendship. We have had a lot of fun and made some life long friends. We will (continue to) look for a store front in Eastie to keep the tradition going but for now we have to focus on the new place and get everything ready for Easter.”

The Cucchiellos said they plan to be doing deliveries to Eastie during the Easter Holiday, one of their busiest times a year for bread, pastries and pies.

The Cucchiellos have been in the food business for decades In Eastie beginning with Logan Bakery owned by Frank “Ju Ju” Cucchiello.

The establishment later moved to Bennington Street where it was run be Michael Cucchiello Sr., Gabriel and Augustino Cucchiello.

The business kept getting bigger and bigger over the years causing the family to move the location of the business several times finally settling in Day Square.

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