Tucked onto Edwards Street, Missouri Baking Co. has been part of daily life on The Hill since 1924. Known today for its Italian pastries, cookies and cakes, the bakery began as something quite different: a wholesale bread operation started by an immigrant baker from northern Italy.
Stefano Gambaro and the bread business
The founder, Stefano Gambaro, came from northern Italy; St. Louis Magazine identifies him as a native of Genoa. According to the Riverfront Times, the owners of Garavelli’s, a south St. Louis cafeteria, recruited him in the early 1920s, and he started Missouri Baking as a wholesale bread business.
Gambaro died in his 40s, leaving a wife and six children. The older children left school to work in the bakery, and the younger ones joined as they grew old enough, the Riverfront Times reported.
From wholesale to retail
The turn toward the bakery people know today came from Ben Gambaro, the youngest of the six. With several wholesale bread bakers already working in the neighborhood, he concluded the family would do better selling directly to customers. Missouri Baking became a retail shop focused on walk-in customers and special orders. Ben later bought out his siblings and, in time, sold the business to his own children, who became the third generation. Ben died at 96, according to the Riverfront Times.
The third generation was a brother and sister, Chris Gambaro and his sister, who appears in coverage as Mimi Lordo and, in court filings and later reporting, as Camille Lordo. The Riverfront Times 2021 profile said Lordo’s son Joseph and Gambaro’s daughter Christina were expected to take over one day.
What it is known for
Traditional Italian pastries and cakes are the heart of the business. In its 2021 profile, the Riverfront Times reported:
- Best sellers included cream puffs, cannoli, tiramisu, chocolate drops and traditional holiday cookies
- Demand for cuccidati, the fig-filled cookies, had recently surged
- Cassata cake was a holiday request, while panettone, once in high demand, had grown less popular with younger customers
Lordo summed up the bakery’s approach for the paper: “It’s all based around tradition.”
An ownership fight and its resolution
In the fall of 2024, the bakery’s future suddenly looked uncertain. St. Louis Magazine reported in November 2024 that Chris Gambaro had sold his 50 percent share to Anthony Favazza, a lawyer and longtime friend who bought the rights to Amighetti’s in 2016. Lordo, who held the other half, then sued in St. Louis Circuit Court, asking a judge to dissolve the co-owned company and dispose of its assets. KSDK, relaying St. Louis Business Journal reporting, said the filing stated that the owners could not agree on the desirability of continuing the business. Favazza told St. Louis Magazine he wanted to keep the bakery going and to expand into online sales and wholesale.
The dispute ended with the bakery back in the family’s hands. In early February 2026, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Missouri Baking Co. had been sold back to the founder’s family and now belonged solely to the founder’s granddaughter. (St. Louis Magazine had identified Lordo and her brother as Stefano Gambaro’s grandchildren.) The Post-Dispatch article itself is paywalled; this account rests on the paper’s own video summary and headline, so details such as the price and the court process are not included here.
Visiting
Missouri Baking Co. is at 2027 Edwards St., St. Louis, MO 63110. The Riverfront Times Hill guide (last updated April 2025) and an undated KSDK feature both list hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; KSDK gives the phone number as (314) 773-6566. Hours may have changed since, so call ahead to confirm, especially around holidays.
For more on the neighborhood’s past, see our History of The Hill timeline.
Sources: Riverfront Times, St. Louis Magazine, KSDK / St. Louis Business Journal, KSDK (Show Me St. Louis), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (video), Riverfront Times (Hill guide)
