Bivio Returns! Bivio Panificio Opens on Pine Street in Montclair

“You can sell a business, but you can’t sell passion.”

That’s what Montclair’s Tomasso Colao discovered not long after after he and his wife Jackie sold their hugely popular pizza business, Bivio Pizzeria Napoletana in Little Falls (we wrote about Bivio back in 2014 and then raved about them in Where to Eat Pizza).

“The fire was calling me. I missed the oven, missed the dough,” says Colao of his decision to open a new venture. He looked at other locations, including one in Bloomfield, but nothing worked out. There was one location, at 107 Pine Street, that he always loved. It had been a butcher shop, a fish market, a bakery, and lastly, a cheese importing business. Colao, who has lived in Montclair for over 25 years, had always loved the building and the space, so when he saw it was available, he jumped.

Today, the Pine Street storefront buzzes with the sound of jazz music playing in the background (when he’s not baking, Colao is a musician, playing saxophone, flute and clarinet) and the heady scent of bread baking.

Colao’s bread is all natural and he hopes to make 50-70 loaves a day. For now, he expects to be open until 5 p.m or until “all the bread is gone.” Once the bread is home, keep it away from plastic. “The crust is its own container,” says Colao, adding that it should stay fresh for about three days, providing you don’t eat it all before then.

Breads are priced from $3-$6. Come after 1 p.m. and you can find three varieties (long, baguette-like loaves and two types of crusty, round boules) baked and ready for sale. For now, it’s bread along with some pop-up dinner parties in the works, but possibly by November, says Colao, you might see Bivio’s famous pizzas make a return appearance (we can’t wait!)

Bivio Panificio, 107 Pine Street, Montclair, 973-941-9602