Earlier this morning Liscio’s opened the doors to their new Glassboro Retail Bakery & Deli, delighting customers who were excited to see them return after a three-year absence from their homebase town.
The new location on Delsea Drive is BIG… offering plenty of space for customers to shop, a significantly longer counter area which spaces out the ordering areas as well as tons of parking. (Next to Matt Blatt Mitsubishi, across from Monarch Diner)
The menu in Glassboro has also expanded to include the all-new Main Street Grille which offers hot food items including cheesesteaks, chicken cutlet sandwiches, roast beef and pork… even Buffalo Wings and French Fries!
I stopped in this morning completely unannounced and when I was brought to the back to meet founder and co-owner James Liscio… there he was at the new grill making delicious breakfast sandwiches. Now that’s an owner who stays “hands on” in the business!
But that may also be because the five Liscio family sons have found their own key areas within the business to manage, positioning James and his wife Jean Marie to look forward to a not-too-far-off future featuring more travel, family and time at the Jersey Shore.
While co-owner Charles Vilotti was as the main office when I visited, it was James and Jean Marie who gave me the full tour this morning… and I know customers will agree that the new location was well worth the wait!
Developed in a building which previously housed a Save-A-Lot grocery store, the large 22,000 square foot space provided the Liscio Bakery team with a lot of design freedom to create a better shopping experience for their customers, as well as a smarter centralized baking/Kitchen system to support all three stores.
Not only is Liscio’s Glassboro now their largest and most spacious retail location of the three, they were also able to create a central bakery and kitchen in the back which supports all of their locations with delicious cakes, pastries, donuts, cookies and more.
Liscio’s is owned by James and partner Charles who joined together in 2001 to take the then smaller beloved bakery to the next level… which today includes a massive 150,000 square foot production bakery facility on Ellis Street in Glassboro, and retail locations in Sicklerville and Washington Township (along with the new Glassboro location).
Liscio’s Bakery & Deli Glassboro – The Experience
Walking into Liscio’s Glassboro the first time you’ll immediately notice how much more spacious it is than their other two locations.
Factor in the high ceilings and the front wall of glass, it just feels more comfortable and inviting… and that extra space absolutely provides a better customer shopping experience.
For example, while I didn’t ask for specific measurements, the counter area is huge and runs along two long walls… likely over 120-feet long. Offering their amazing breads, hoagies, deli, pizzas, cookies, pastries and more, in a configuration that won’t have you tripping over other customers to place your order!
And the open retail floor area of Glassboro provides several rows of merchandise including prepared cakes, seasonal products, single serving treats, packaged rolls and grocery items.
To give a sense of the size of the new Glassboro location, I shop at the Washington Twp location and I bet you could easily fit TEN of the Sewell retail area inside the Glassboro front customer space! (Incidentally, up next for Liscio’s is a full remodel of the Washington Twp store including a larger customer area!)
Liscio’s started as a bread/bakery business but read any social media conversation on “who has the best hoagies” and the comments always include several suggestions of Liscio’s… and their pizzas are also top sellers.
Plus all of the salads are made in the store also… with many items coming from recipes passed down from family and friends. “Julie’s Chicken Salad” is named for the mother of one of the employees!
With the expanded space in Glassboro they are also offering an expanded menu… as mentioned a new grill and fryer installation means you can now order delicious hot food.
Glassboro is the first Liscio’s retail location with a full grill and fryers, offering a variety of sandwiches including cheesesteaks, chicken cutlets, roast beef and pork, meatball… and even delicious Buffalo Wings, mozzarella sticks, French fries, and more!
James says the Diablo Turkey Hoagie has always been one of their best sellers, so he created a Diablo cheese sauce for a Diablo Cheesesteak which is already gaining rave reviews from employees and friends. He can’t wait for customers to try it… just don’t ask what kind of rolls they use, because you already know the answer!
Liscio’s Glassboro also offers a selection of gourmet food products, and James tries to utilize local suppliers wherever he can.
For example, shoppers can find Homemade Authentic Italian Sauces from Gloucester County’s Visceglia’s, or pasta products from P&S Ravioli out of Philadelphia.
Another new menu addition that is coming soon are Ice Cream Cakes! Yes Liscio’s will be making their own fresh ice cream in the building, and using their skilled decorating team to create the perfect ice cream party cake. (Ice cream will only be available for the cakes)
Which leads us back to the plan of creating this larger Glassboro location as a central main hub to support the other retail stores.
One example is, previously cakes were made in one location, decorating was done at another, and baking all of the sweet treat pastries to support the locations was just getting too cramped.
In the spacious back bakery area of Glassboro, Liscio’s has been able to bring everything into one large open space to support all retail locations (cake decorating takes place in a separate isolated space behind the counter area).
Today I met the bakers making cakes, and then under the same roof the skilled decorating team as they were decorating Easter themed cakes.
With the other two locations just a few minutes away, it’s very easy for Liscio’s to deliver freshly made products to all of locations, multiple times a day.
It’s an impressive and equally spacious large backey and kitchen area… seemingly sized to support additional growth in retail locations.
I joked with James about that and he responded “well that’s not up to me! I’m leaving decision for my boys. I’m looking forward to putting more time into my family, traveling and vising the Jersey shore”
Liscio’s Bakery: Family Now, Into The Future
In chatting with James and Jean Marie there was one key aspect of the business’ success that they kept coming back to over and over again… Family.
And in this context, “Family” means both the loyal staff who truly enjoy coming to work every day and being a part of the Liscio family… as well as the five sons who are all fully involved in key aspects of the Liscio business areas.
As we move throughout the facility James introduced me to many of his employees, all of whom had many years of being part of the Liscio team.
James not only credits the team for contributing to the Liscio Bakery success… he was also very honest about the challenges the business faced during the tough pandemic years, and gives 100% of the credit for the business surviving during those tough business years on the hard work, loyalty and love that his extended Liscio Family brings.
With every employee I met, James would point out how long they have been working Liscio’s. Throughout the facility were bakers, decorators, pizza makers.. all with significant number of years at Liscio’s.
All of the key leads have been there at least 20 years it seems, growing from within the organization.
One example is I got to meet the head of the distribution team which delivers rolls throughout the entire Delaware Valley… He started out as a pastry chef in one of the retail stores and now manages one of the key aspects of the Liscio’s business.
Jean Marie remembers when James started out with that first small bakery 30 years ago. She was pregnant with their first son, and James was mostly a one-man-show in operating the bakery!
But over the decades of growing a family and business, the kid’s saw the bakery as a second home.
Things are different today with a large dedicated team, and excellent partner with Charles V, and the Liscio’s sons each finding their own key areas of expertise in the business.
Jean Marie says she has always told her sons that the bakery was their father’s dream, and it doesn’t need to be there dream also. She did ask that they all go to college, and all five sons graduated with degrees.
And then they all came back to the bakery. It felt like home.
In my tour through the facility I got to meet all five sons; James, Nicholas, Michael, Joseph and Christopher… Just like their mother and father they’re all awesome people who are also driven on providing the best product and customer experience at Liscio’s.
I find it interesting how each of the son’s found their own core area to become experts in! It’s almost like when the parents are musicians and the kid’s grew up surrounded by music. The family starts a band and somehow each kid ends up becoming experts at their own instrument; guitar, drums, keyboards…
But in the case of Liscio’s family, the five sons grew up in the bakery business and have found their own areas of expertise at the family business.
The two oldest are involved in the core operations including the larger 150,000 square foot production facility on Ellis Street. Another son is in financial aspects of the business, another focuses on the retail segment, and another son gravitated towards procurement which also included buying all of the materials for the new Glassboro location.
After meeting the whole family and hearing about how they go about business, putting their customers and the team first… and then meeting the sons who are already positioned to operate the business…
… I 1000% believe that James and Jean Marie will be able to enjoy that next chapter of life with more travel and family! But I also fully expect when I stop back to the Glassboro location next time I’ll find James putting product on shelves, taking customer orders behind the counter… or making a delicious Diablo Cheesesteak.
Links and Location
Liscio’s Retail Bakery and Deli – Now Open!
557 North Main Street
Glassboro NJ
856.442.7323
- Hours
- Monday – Saturday: 6AM – 7PM
- Sunday: 6AM – 5PM