The smell of baking bread wafts through the door at Mamma Leone, a family-run Italian bakery in Edgewater where Benedetta di Persia, a Tuscan chef and baker, kneads dough by hand with two assistants to make sure it will hold for days.

Together with her husband, Gianpiero di Persia, the former restaurateur and master baker opened the 1,000-square-foot space in January to service the neighborhood. Now a regular crowd of Italians, Venezuelans, and other customers from as far as Key Biscayne stop by daily to shop for assorted Italian handmade savories and sweets, according to Gianpiero.