Dedication leads to sweet reward for Unity man
Bob Colaianne Jr. wasn't going to let a hospital stint from a stomach ailment ruin a customer's big day.
His IV was disconnected and, from a hospital bed in 1974, he decorated a wedding cake.
“We put the wedding cake on a gurney,” said Colaianne's son Jimmy. “He was our only cake decorator, so he did it and the wedding went on as scheduled. He sets the bar.”
That bar is high — Colaianne has been perfecting his trade for decades. The Unity man, 86, has piped hundreds of sugary borders and colorful flowers on cakes for sundry celebrations. He's toiled over cookies hidden away in a production room at Dainty Pastry Shoppe in Latrobe and regularly rises before the dough does to prepare buns and bread for orders.
The bakery celebrated 68 years in business last month, but Colaianne found his passion years before that.
It's his “first love,” said his wife Juanita.
She wasn't joking.
“I love the baking industry as much today as I did as a young fella,” said Colaianne, while seated at a small table in the bakery looking out to Depot Street. “My greatest satisfaction is when people compliment us on a product.”
As a teenager in the 1940s, Colaianne helped his father at a local bakery before Bob Colaianne Sr. opened Dainty Pastry. He was an easy recruit.
“I graduated (from Latrobe High School) in 1948; I already had a job,” he said. “I've been in the bakery all my life.”
In 1954, he attended what is now known as The Wilton School of Cake Decorating and Confectionery Art near Chicago. He married Juanita the same year, and 17 years later they took over the bakery with the help of his four sisters.
It wasn't long before their children — Curt, Jimmy, David and Cathy — were immersed in bakery life, he said. When the kids were in high school, Colaianne ran a tight ship — they had to be at the bakery at 10 p.m. Friday to help with the crush of weekend orders.
“You leave the (football) stadium and you walk from the stadium to here,” son Curt Colaianne recalled.
“I'd leave there like 9:45 and sprint and be here at the front door in time,” Jimmy Colaianne said. “He taught you very good work ethic.”
The three boys now run the show, while their father helps out a few days a week.
“It's what I've enjoyed, and I guess that's the reason why I'm sticking around,” Colaianne said.
The family tradition is evident in black-and-white photos and other portraits of the Colaianne brood that hang above glass cases full of sweet treats and bagged breads.
“We've been very fortunate; our customers have been loyal to us,” Colaianne said. “We've had customers who have been buying, I think, since the day my dad opened the door.”
One day last week, preparation for holiday orders and purchases were in full swing. Colaianne — dressed in a white button-down shirt with his name embroidered in red, an apron, white pants and a white ball cap with a yellow pencil behind his ear — had arrived at the bakery at 3 a.m. to join his sons, who had been working since midnight. He doesn't need an alarm to be on time, but his wife still sometimes sets one, just in case.
“We have a starting time, but we never know when we're going to finish,” he said.
Colaianne shuffled between work stations, pulling pans of brownies, sugar cookies, buns and macaroons from the warm oven and placing them on a rack to cool, his pride evident in the same movements he's been doing for decades. His record is decorating 11 wedding cakes in one day.
“My dad's always endured, and it's always been whatever it takes,” Curt Colaianne said.
But soon, he and Juanita Colaianne will be heading south to escape the cold Pennsylvania winter. It's a nice break for the sort-of retired man, but he'll be back in time to man the ovens in the middle of the night for Easter-time orders.
“I always felt that people depended on me,” Colaianne said. “I never wanted to disappoint anybody.”
Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.
