Santina’s Italian Pastry by Nino in the Village at Newtown South, customers will find bakery cases filled with handcrafted Italian pastries straight from the oven. Owned by Dana DiLisa, who oversees the business, the shop features her father, Nino, showcasing his pastry skills in the kitchen, while Dana’s mother, Jane Mondello, also helps out. Named after Dana’s daughter, Santina’s reflects a strong family ethos and a passion for authentic Italian treats.
The shop offers a tempting selection of Italian cookies, cakes, and pies, including popular rainbow and ricotta cookies, along with freshly baked Italian bread and sweet breads. “Everything is fresh and homemade by hand,” Dana shares. “Nino uses his own recipes. It’s a lot of work, but when you enjoy it, it’s not work at all.” The bakery takes pride in its signature homemade cannoli, made from Nino’s Sicilian heritage, with tube-shaped shells filled to order with a creamy ricotta filling.
Nino, who was born and raised in Palermo, Sicily, and came to America with his family in 1970 when he was 16 years old, has been making Italian pastries for decades, honing his skills at bakeries in Philadelphia, New York City, and in the Chambersburg section of Trenton, before realizing his dream and opening his own business in 1996.
At Nino’s Pastry Shoppe on Quakerbridge Road in Hamilton Township, Nino, Jane and Dana built a reputation for having one of the best Italian pastry shops around known for its cannolis, homemade pies and cakes, Danish (walnut) rings, cookies, and much more.
2112 S Eagle Rd, Newtown, PA