Pasticceria Alati Caserta

Bakery: Pasticceria Alati Caserta 
Address: 277 Rue Dante, Montreal QC
Website: http://www.alaticaserta.com/
Style: Italian 
Price: $$-$$$ 

Alati Caserta is actually part of a rare species in Canada: the traditional Italian pasticceria, or patisserie. Many place the title alongside others, but once you step inside, you realize it's actually more of a deli; more often than not, the place smells of pasta and pizza sauce. There's a hot food counter, there are loaves of bread, perhaps an olive and antipasto bar, of course you need the espresso... you know what I mean. Pasticceria Alati Caserta is none of that, and yet so much more with shelves upon shelves of cakes, cookies, pastries, and those famous cannoli.

Coming here on a November weekend, I found the line nearly out the door. Just for pastries -- mostly for those aforementioned cannoli; of course, this may have been due to the fact that, the entire month of November, as a way of thanking customers for 50 years, all cannoli were 50% off. Whether or not it's always this busy, it was busy then and workers were scrambling to keep up with the demand, filling and refilling trays with multiple flavours of giant cannoli, an amazing eight or so varieties: classic ricotta, pastry cream, chocolate, tiramisu, lemon, coffee, straciatella, Oreo... am I missing any?

So, how could I not take a cannolo ($3.50/each, $1.75 50% off November special)? I was thinking of the ricotta at first; after all, it's always good to judge something by the plainest variety, but then I couldn't resist the tiramisu. ^^; The dusting of cocoa on top kind of got stuck to the bag, but still, the idea was there: a hint of chocolate, a hint of coffee, and a rich, cheesy cream stuffed in a puffy, golden-fried roll. Mmm... the size was right. XD The cream delicious, but I personally thought the shell was little too airy for the amount of cream inside, though it was nicely fried. I'm just not sure if it's necessarily worth $3.50, regular price; that's kind of a lot for a cannolo.... 

Rating: ***