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Wednesday, April 23, 2003

By Chris Crytzer

For those who enjoy Mancini's bread made in Stowe, it's now available in South Carolina. That's right. Pittsburghers who travel to North Myrtle Beach for business or pleasure can get a sandwich made with Mancini's bread at Oscar's Food & Spirits.

Earlier this year, Pittsburgh native Fred Williams called Mancini's Bakery to see if the 77-year-old institution could supply his restaurant, located on Highway 17 in North Myrtle Beach.

According to Scott Altman, Mancini's general manager, "When [Oscar's] called me, they wanted to buy the dough and bake it at their place, but I didn't think it would work. I tried to talk them out of it."

Despite Altman's concerns about freshness and quality, Williams persevered.

"I've tried countless products and nothing compares," Williams said. "There's no bread quite like Mancini's. I think it's the best bread in the world."

So Mancini's professional bakers made the dough into bread, then froze it instead of baking it. However, as Altman predicted, this approach didn't work.

The next attempt involved par-baked (partially baked) loaves, which was more successful. Current owner Mary Mancini Hartner said, "We had to develop a method of par-baking the loaves so that they would arrive fresh in South Carolina and then be able to be frozen so that the restaurant could use them as needed.

"The fact that we use no preservatives in our mix made this a challenge."

The first time Williams drove to Pittsburgh, he rented a freezer truck and picked up 1,500 par-baked loaves, plus 500 loaves of frozen dough. Despite the 12-hour drive each way, Williams said, "It's not that much of an inconvenience."

For his most recent trip, Williams brought a trailer and a pickup truck to transport 2,000 2-pound loaves back to Oscar's, where a freezer had been built to store the bread.

Currently, the restaurant goes through 40 to 50 loaves of Mancini's bread each day for 70 types of sandwiches. And just recently, the menu and an exterior sign were updated to include mention of Mancini's bread.

Williams' purchase was the largest one-day order in Mancini's history and it involved overtime. While Mancini's is used to dealing with large orders from restaurants, grocery stores and delis, Altman said,they've never tackled an order of this magnitude.

"It was tight to say the least. We increased our production at the end of our second shift," Mancini's general manager said. "We started Fred's order at 4 a.m. and he showed up at 11 a.m. and we were still making bread. I don't think he left here before 2 p.m."

Williams expects to return to Pittsburgh every few months to pick up another order of Mancini's bread for his restaurant. He believes the bread will stay fresh, but said, "If I have to, I'll get less and make more trips." The restaurateur said his customers like the bread and have made a lot of positive comments about it.

When asked why Mancini's is considered a local institution, Altman said almost everybody has a story about Mancini's.

Customers' stories range from childhood memories of someone taking them to Mancini's to those who buy two loaves at a time -- one to eat in the car and one for home -- to women pounding on the door at 3:30 a.m. with the hopes that an employee will open the door and sell them some bread.

Customers still stand in lines outside the bakery on Woodward Avenue, but Mancini's has increased production and the doors now stay open as long as the company is making bread or has bread to sell.

The only time the bakery is closed is for cleaning on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 2 p.m. to midnight.

The 36 employees who work at Mancini's aren't permitted to reveal any trade secrets. According to the company's Web site, the bread is made from simple ingredients, including unbleached flour.

Altman acknowledged that being specific about their ingredients and maintaining old production processes positively affect the taste of Mancini's products.

"It takes us a lot longer to produce a loaf of bread," he said of the 4 hours and 15 minutes it takes for Mancini's bread to be created.

In addition to its signature Italian twist loaf, hoagie sticks, rolls and raisin bread, Mancini's recently started selling several new breads, including rosemary bread, sundried tomato basil bread and pepperoni and parmesan cheese bread, to name a few.

Chris Crytzer is a freelance writer.