{"id":36644,"date":"2026-07-30T14:44:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/36644\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:44:31","slug":"astorias-beloved-italian-pastry-shop-la-guli-closes-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/36644\/","title":{"rendered":"Astoria\u2019s beloved Italian pastry shop La Guli closes for good"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Italian pastry shop La Guli, a beloved Astoria institution since 1937, has served its last <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/12\/18\/support-nyc-restaurants-and-shops-with-these-edible-gifts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">gingerbread house<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Third-generation owner and chief baker Maria Notaro posted on Facebook on Sunday that the store was \u201ctemporarily\u201d closed due to \u201cfamily matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, neighbors in <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/tag\/astoria\/page\/2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the colorful Queens neighborhood<\/a> were saddened to find the space at 29-15 Ditmars Blvd. stripped of its well-aged wood, tile and glass counters that for generations displayed Sicilian-style cannolis, tricolor cookies and Italian ices.<\/p>\n<p>La Guli famously launched a \u201cPope Francis cookie\u201d in 2015 in honor of the pontiff\u2019s visit to the city. Facebook\/La Guli Pastry Shop<\/p>\n<p>Third-generation owner and chief baker Maria Notaro posted on Facebook on Sunday that the store was \u201ctemporarily\u201d closed due to \u201cfamily matters.\u201d Facebook\/La Guli Pastry Shop<\/p>\n<p>Gone, too, will be legendary holiday-season gingerbread houses with crackling icing on tops the cooks made from scratch.<\/p>\n<p>A workman confirmed Wednesday, \u201cIt\u2019s gone,\u201d as he wheeled out remnants of the atmospheric bakery.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One devotee said the store\u2019s scents of butter and sugar \u201csmelled more like Italy than anything at Eataly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGrowing up on Steinway Street, my father would be in there every Sunday. He\u2019d bring home a half-dozen cannoli and millefoglie\u201d until he passed away at 92 in 2015, said former Astoria resident Joe Carella.<\/p>\n<p>Maria Notaro, owner of La Guli Pastry Shop, showcases one of their decorated gingerbread houses. Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n<p>A workman confirmed, \u201cIt\u2019s gone,\u201d as he wheeled out remnants of the bakery.\u00a0 Stefano Giovannini<\/p>\n<p>La Guli famously launched <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/post\/queens-pastry-shop-got-international-attention-pope-francis-cookies-keeps-tradition-going-leo\/16361477\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a \u201cPope Francis cookie\u201d<\/a> in 2015 in honor of the pontiff\u2019s visit to the city. Nine years later, it commemorated the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/08\/world-news\/american-born-cardinal-robert-prevost-elected-pope\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ascension of American-born Pope Leo XIV<\/a> with a new shortbread cookie illustrated with an image of him waving from St. Peter\u2019s Basilica in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>The reason for the sudden closure wasn\u2019t known. Notaro could not immediately be reached.<\/p>\n<p>But the Astoria shopping district around the Ditmars Boulevard elevated station has seen a lot of upheaval in the past few years. Popular Italian restaurant L\u2019Incontro around the corner from La Guli closed, among other changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian pastry shop La Guli, a beloved Astoria institution since 1937, has served its last gingerbread house. Third-generation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24506,20927,244,5,1455,21563,24507],"class_list":["post-36644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-astoria","tag-bakery","tag-business","tag-italy","tag-real-estate","tag-realty-check","tag-store-closings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}