Santina's Italian Pastry by Nino is the newest retailer in the Village at Newtown South. From classic pastries to custom cakes, owner Dana DiLisa is bringing her storied family name and a passion for the art of baking to the people of Newtown and beyond from their bakery at 2112 S. Eagle Road.
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A Family Affair
Pâtissière-enthusiast Dana learned her love of baking from her father, Nino, longtime owner of Nino’s Pastry Shoppe in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. Raised in Palermo, Sicily, until the age of 16 and trained at bakeries across the Philadelphia and New York area, Nino opened his Trenton pastry shoppe in 1996.
After nearly two decades of successful business there, the family closed the shoppe to accomplish a longtime dream of opening a bakery in Newtown.
"We've always wanted to come to Newtown," Dana says. "It's a great community, it's a great place. I live in Newtown and we love it here."
Nino works as head baker at the new bakery, with Dana at the helm as owner and cake decorator. She hopes her daughter, Santina, after whom the bakery is named, will one day take the reins as a third-generation owner.
A Love For The Craft
To Dana, what makes Santina's special is the love put into every pastry.
"What my father does with his baking is a dying art," she says. "It's hard work and people don't want to do that now. You're not a baker because you take something out of a box and put it in the oven. It takes skill, and it takes love for what we do."
Dana and Nino use only their own recipes for their handmade pastries, perfected over decades in the world of bakeries.
Authentic Italian Pastries
For a first-time visitor, Dana recommends opting for a classic: the bakery’s signature cannoli or a lobster tail pastry, a similar flaky shell with cannoli filling.
“Everyone can recognize a cannoli, but I don’t think people are often getting a good, authentic, actual cannoli, and you will get that here,” Dana assures.
The Santina’s team pride themselves on using fresh, authentic ingredients and making all of their goods daily by hand. “Everything here is made by us on location,” she says. “We don’t bring in anything except our ingredients, and that sets us apart from everybody else.”