It takes off-roading through an alley to reach a place that will bring you as close to the other side of the world as you can get in Staunton. Giancarlo Gnali’s pastry has customers crossing state lines to squeeze into the back room of his home and order some pastries. The pastry shop used to be a garage. There are no fancy tables or exquisite furniture, but it is far beyond luxury decor, because it is rich in the most critical places of all: on the shelves, and in the soul. 

You won’t find any lukewarm, microwaved pastries in the house. Everything is fresh, just as it has been from the start for Gnali, who began his long legacy over fifty years ago with a copper pot in the mountains of Lumezzane, Italy.