Conshohocken bakery has to roll with the punches as a key ingredient is cut amid Russia boycott

Things are rolling along at Conshohocken Italian Bakery after an ingredient crisis threatened a portion of the region’s sandwich trade last weekend.

On March 4, owner Tina Gambone sent a dire email to her wholesale customers:

No potato rolls until further notice.

The bakery’s sweet, buttery potato rolls account for about 20% of sales at the business that her father, Dom, co-founded nearly 50 years ago on a side street in Conshohocken. Popular restaurants such as Spot Burgers and Mike’s BBQ use Conshy’s potato rolls.

The bakery’s South Jersey supplier had told Gambone without warning that it could not manufacture the potato-flour base — a critical part of the dough — and did not know when shipments would resume. Sanctions imposed on Russia have thrown all commodity markets into a tizzy, and Gambone surmised that this was behind it. (The supplier did not reply to an email from The Inquirer seeking comment.)

Commercial bakers must manage sundry variables, including consumer tastes and trends (low carb, gluten-free). Most important, their bottom lines rise and fall based on commodity prices.

Just as wheat flour had been trending down, prices lately have been tracking at record highs, Tina Gambone said.

Conshohocken absorbs price fluctuations but has never been denied a particular ingredient.

Given the bakery’s needs heading into the weekend, and with its supply of 50-pound bags about to run out, the Gambones found a different base from another South Jersey supplier.

The hitch: The formula is not the same. Conshohocken’s bakers spent the weekend tweaking the recipe. By adding a bit more yeast, they replicated the rolls’ distinctive fluffiness, and the oven began churning out rolls again by Monday.

“We’re back up and baking,” Tina Gambone said. “Until the next crisis.”