Concept:
Re-imagining the cannoli as the new eat-and-go treat of choice, STUFFED aims to offer a variety of affordable, approachable, and crave-able snacks for a widespread and diverse audience. By blending our unconventional ideas with Italy’s most popular dessert, churning creative lines of cannoli varieties that take inspiration from America’s favorite flavors and seasonal delights, taking inspiration from other treats we have grown to know and love. making the cannoli more multi-cultural than ever.
History:
Many food staples have been invented by accident—Coca Cola, popsicles, even chocolate chip cookies—so perhaps it’s not all that surprising to hear that Stuffed Artisan Cannolis, the Lower East Side bakery featuring funkified cannoli flavors, started out the same way.
When Brielle Dahan decided to help out her long-time Love Anthony Fontana by bartending at his family’s short-staffed Little Italy restaurant, she didn’t expect that mixing cocktails would somehow change her life. To an extent, she was right—it was what she did during off-hours that did. Bored behind the counter one day, she decided to whip up a cheese based pumpkin pie without realizing she was lacking ingredients for its crust. Reluctant to let her efforts go to waste, she followed her gut to a crafty solution—stuffing the mixture into empty cannoli shells—and the first Artisan Cannoli was born.
Like most accidental inventions, Brielle’s impromptu pumpkin pie cannoli was an instant hit: her first batch of two-dozen sold out in under an hour. But it was only when Fontana stepped in with his pastry-making expertise that the pair realized the gem they’d stumbled upon. The possibilities seemed endless, and Anthony began losing sleep as he sorted through them and concocted recipes in his mind. The flavor list grew and grew.
It didn’t take long for Stuffed to form as an independent commercial operation but the journey to their brick-and-mortar shop didn’t happen overnight. They first tested the waters by making their first splash at the Feast of San Gennaro in 2008
For the next year, Anthony and Brielle perfected their flavors and developed a loyal following as they doled cannoli from their street cart at the corner of Mulberry and Hester Street, still within the nearby comforts of the family kitchens. Gradually, the team expanded their line of flavors. With a full line of 70 flavors in tow, they were ready to open up a more permanent shop—one that couldn’t be rained out—and graduated from Little Italy to a neighborhood that better suited their unconventional treats, the Lower East side.
From its earliest phases, Stuffed Artisan Cannolis has prioritized the best ingredients possible: as with the original pumpkin pie, each cannoli would be filled with the same things that you’d bake into a homemade, from-scratch dessert. The ricotta impastata credited for making the cannolis so special is purchased locally from an artisanal cheese purveyor. Dulce de leche is ordered from the best sources in Argentina for a Latin-inflected treat, and Nutella is imported and used generously for its namesake flavor (stuffed into a chocolate shell and topped with crushed hazelnuts) despite its hefty pricetag. No artificial flavors are ever used, as a general rule. Moreover, each treat is stuffed and decorated by hand, one by one, and by never cutting corners, Stuffed guarantees the freshest, most flavorful (and prettiest) cannoli you’ve likely ever come across.
Just as much part of the team’s vision is incorporating different cultures into their own Italian heritage. Not only do they take inspiration from Americana classics like apple pie and peanut butter cups, but they also turn to multi-cultural flavor profiles in order to broaden the horizons of Italy’s most popular dessert. The Liquor Infused Line is perfect for men who think grab-and-go desserts are dainty. @ STUFFED there is something for just about everyone its love @ first bite!
