BUFFALO, N.Y. — Daniela Battaglia’s family has owned Romano’s Italian Bakery in Buffalo for just almost 22 years. Battaglia was going to college for advertising, but life brought her back to the bakery. 

“I enjoyed baking and because I was in advertising at that time, we did everything by hand so drawing was by hand. No computers,” she said. “And I figured my artwork was going out one way or another.”

Battaglia officially took it over in 2010 with her sister and her father.

Everything was going well, but then the pandemic happened. To survive the first few months, Romano’s Bakery couldn’t make baked goods. They had to make other kinds of food like baked pasta, chicken pot pie and bread. 

“Did it help? Sure. Kept us busy,” Battaglia said. “But other than that, now everybody’s looking for the food, and there’s only two of us that work now so there’s no way we can do the food.”

They could bake again in January 2021, but in March 2021, a new challenge arose. Battaglia was having a tough time finding the basics she needed to make their baked goods. Her vendors did not have them. 

“Product: not only did it stop going up in price, it was almost impossible to find,” she said. “We were out of our cake mix for about six months, so they had to substitute.”

Battaglia says it’s crucial to get the right brand of ingredients for the bakery’s recipes or the baked goods won’t taste the same. Other items she had trouble finding were oil, cake base and at one point in time she couldn’t find sugar.

Her vendors were able to stock these items again in December, but not in the large quantities she needs. Now there’s a new ingredient in shortage: Cream cheese. She says having the shortages has been difficult. 

"People don’t care why you don’t have it. People want it and people want it now,” Battaglia said. “It doesn’t matter if, like, I have some customers that’ll sit there and tell me it’s just an excuse why I don’t have it or why I have to place an order. Because before they didn’t have to place an order.”

Although most items she needs are somewhat in stock now, albeit not in the quantities she needs, Battaglia is still wary because she doesn’t know if there will be another shortage again. She feels discouraged.

"With products not being in, are we going to be able to stay open?” she said. “Am I going to have to change up what we serve or what we sell? Am I going to be able to make a living in this field still or not?"

Battaglia says she hopes things will go back to the way they were before the pandemic started. She says her business recently made up for the financial losses that occurred from the first year of pandemic.