Frank’s Bakery & Gibaldi’s Italian Bread

Always delicious !!! Best Italian bread in town !

I have been coming here for a long time, this is the place for the best bread!!!

As a boy growing up in Little Italy, there was nothing finer than crunching into a loaf of Frank Gibaldi’s bread. In those days he made the rounds of Little Italy and kept the Italian fisherman families afloat with Frank’s Pane’. Today, From those early days in the 1930’s to now, 2015, there are no finer old world family artisan bread maker’s than the Gibaldi’s.
Oh yeah, some may say well, Solunto was good. Yeah, but he was a flash in the pan of bakers and the bread lasted a day. For the Sicilians and Italians of Little Italy, the familia Gibald is, was and will be the best ad infinitum… Tommy Gibaldi and his two sons working with him now that will ensure the family legacy continues.
Ciao for now,
Joe
Giuseppi Bonpensiero
Lt. Colonel, USAF
Author
Niput…the Nephew
Chocolate Moon

This is a San Diego institution. Generations of excellence at making Italian bread. My grandfather introduced me to them 40 years ago. Give it a try!

This is primarily a restaurant supply place delivering all over the county. Because this place is «old-​school» you can go in and order a dozen rolls or a large loaf for some off the hook garlic bread.
I have gone here several times and sometimes you may get lucky enough to meet Frank, in his 70’s he must love what he does.
Note this place is closed on Sat, so if you are going for a Sunday game you need to plan ahead. Hopefully it is a 1:00 game and you can make some mean brats!

I love this place. Unpretentious and excellent! I’ve been buying bread here for many, many years. Just the aroma when I walk in is an overwhelmingly pleasant experience. It’s a soft style crust and I’m always torn between getting the loaves with sesame seeds and those without. I can’t resist buying a a dozen torpedoes so I end up freezing those I don’t eat on the way home and eating them over the next week or so. I especially love the braided loaves and the rounds. Very unique and they always make a good presentation for a special meal. I’ve made my order for Christmas Eve… two 1 lb loaves, a round, and a braided loaf. And there are always compliments from my dinner guests.

I’ll be coming back to this spot for sure. It is on India street just before the 5 North on ramp. This is a waste no time kind of spot. There are limited options, but if you want a couple fresh made basic baguettes (long or short style all 1lb), or fresh dinner rolls give this spot a try. It is a commercial kitchen that you walk into and give whatever person happens to walk by your cash and he/​she will bag up your breads. Bring cash. $ 1.50 with get you a pound of bread. When I was there it was only white bread. It isn’t like the fancy bread bakeries with the olive breads and long rise sourdoughs (which I love too!), it is your basic dinner roll for cheap fresh out of the oven.
I heard of this place when they donated to a Bake Sale for Japan a few years ago. So yeah for donating to the community! It is located right next to Meals on Wheels and has a parking lot, but there seemed to be ample street parking as well.

Quality fresh bread for a great price. If you need some rolls or a baguette for an event or just to have with some good cheese check this place out.

Great place to grab fresh loaves for home. The smell let’s you know it’s good when you walk in and friendly owner/​staff definitely confirm it. Although the selection may be limited the quality isn’t. The only downfall is the location isn’t readily noticeable… but worth the trip.

To me Italian food is about variety and incredibly fresh ingredients. scrumptious flavorful, damn good, divine, heavenly

The 5 stars are for the bread and charm of this family owned and run bakery! This is no fancy over priced spot. I wish I could stop here for bread everyday! This bread is authentic Italian bread. Light and fluffy! You can buy small rolls which I eat alone or as a sand which or as dinner rolls. We usually put salami and cheese on them.
They also have torpedo’s, large loaves, bread bowls (with sourdough available), with sesame seeds or not. The dozen of dinner roll size we always get is $ 3! Can’t beat the price or the charm of this bakery!
One more thing, CASH ONLY

shortening is in their bread, it is no better than mcdonalds. Any restaurant that buys from here I will not eat at.

Amazing service and bread! This place is a gem, with the best prices in town.

You don’t want to know about this place.
And if you do, make sure you bring along a towel to mop up your drool. There is nothing compares to the smell of freshly baked bread.
The only reason I found this place was because of a drive-​by. No. Not that kind.
We were driving on a street that parallels the 5 freeway, in an industrial zone, and there it was. A non-​descript white building with the name painted on the top. Anything with «Bakery» in the name will catch my eye. Anything with «Italian» and «Bakery», and you’d better not be tailgating me, because you will find yourself pulling yourself out of my trunk.
We thought we were going to see a store-​front bakery. Not. It was a industrial bakery. But, Unilocal emboldened me. We just walked on in anyway.
There were racks upon racks of Italian bread, fresh out of the oven. Workers everywhere, moving product, getting ready for shipment. Killer fresh bread smells. And that is how we met Tom. Frank’s son.
Frank is no longer with us, but he left a legacy. Still family run, they’ve been in business for 64 years, with 20 something in this location. And for good reason. Good bread. Loyal customers. Tom, gracious and hard working, made sure we had everything we wanted. Whatever he had been doing, he dropped it just to take care of us.
Yes they sell to the public. And no, you cannot beat their prices. For $ 1.50 you are walking out with a prize loaf of fresh bread…
My personal favorite, any loaf covered with sesame seeds. And they’ve got lots of them here. White Italian bread in many shapes — rolls, round loaves, rings, elongated, twisted, or braided loaves, all during the week. But on Friday only, they also do wheat, jalapeño, cheese, and others.
You can’t get them any fresher unless you bake them yourself. And they are so good!

So a couple of years ago I was on the phone with my fiancée. «the neighbor is going to Gibaldi’s. Do you want anything?»
I was stumped. I had been living just up the street from Gibaldi’s for about 7 years at that time. Always smelling fresh bread and not once, thought about going in there. I didn’t think they sold to the public. With their deliver trucks, I thought they only sold markets and restaurants. Man I felt really dumb. Still do in fact!
I don’t buy fresh bread from anyone else anymore. It’s always fresh and delicious.

Their Italian bread is delicious! I never thought I could find such good bread outside NY. The bread is freshly made and is the perfect taste and texture. The staff was really sweet and gave me a hug loaf for a $ 1.50. I will definitely go back to this place when I’m in town.
Just a quick FYI though don’t expect to find a store counter when you go in. It’s a bunch of workers and tons of bread surrounding you. They are not looking to sell you on the look of their establishment, but on the quality of their Italian bread.

C-L-A-S-S-I-C…Go here, get the freshest, dopest, most bad-​ass Italian style bread in all of SD. This place is old-​school, like 1940’s home-boy…this ain’t that fake-​ass rock hard «Solunto» crap that they push in Little Italy. The real Pride of SD IS GIBALDI“s
This joint is family owned, and keeps it real on the North End of India Steet. It’s more of a bakery than a shop, but if your polite they will tighten you up with bags of the freshest bread you’ve ever chomped on.
Buy a five pound bag of Pete’s Meats sausage and then roll up to Gibaldis for your bread, cut up some onions and peppers and grill up that sausage, and BOOOOOOOOOM… YOUR LIVING LIKE A GANGSTER. You’ll be thanking me when you experience this joints bread, ask around some local businesses use their bread.

We love the braided sesame loaf they sell here. Excellent. Tastes like we’re in Italy!

I love going here to buy fresh bread! The bread is on par with Solunto’s in Little Italy, but without the hassle of finding a place to park.

It’s primarily a commercial bakery — I think they bake for grocery stores, restaurants, and other volume customers. But you can walk in and buy direct. The bread is OK, nothing special, and popularly priced — we got a nice Italian loaf for $ 1.25. If you’re on your way to Blue Water Seafood and you need a lot of bread for an event, or you’re making garlic bread, or bread crumbs, etc. that don’t require an artisan bread, stop in.
All the bread and rolls were white, mostly with sesame seeds. Go elsewhere if you want whole wheat or multigrain.