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1978 — present · LaSalle Avenue to 214 North Niles Avenue
The founding: George Sr. and Iole Macri came from Calabria and opened Macri's Italian Bakery in 1978 on LaSalle Avenue, beside the family's jewelry business. Roughly fifteen years later the bakery moved to 214 North Niles Avenue — the address the visitors bureau's 2026 paczki listing carries for it — and in 2006 George Jr. and Carmela Macri opened Carmela's, a full-service Italian restaurant connected to the bakery, so that the house now bakes and serves under one roofline. The same baker has worked its ovens for more than thirty years, and a third generation of the family is now involved, in the travel feature that tells the house's story (October 2026) — a weaker carrier than the press of record, and the founding dates are printed at its strength, with the Niles Avenue address corroborated by the visitors bureau's own listing.
The named absence: One more bakery name belongs in this entry precisely because so little of it survives: the Lentsch Bakery, a Hungarian house of South Bend's, is gone, and the record reached for this section holds it only in a single passing measure of its quality — the Tribune's 2026 bakery coverage remembers a Hungarian baker from the former Lentsch Bakery whose rye bread drew customers across the river to Mishawaka's West End. The house's dates, address, and course were not found; the name is printed so the gap has a name, and the search stands open in this section's note.
Sources:
- My Family Travels feature on Macri's (20 October 2026) — the 1978 LaSalle Avenue founding by George Sr. and Iole Macri; the move to 214 North Niles Avenue; Carmela's, 2006; the baker of thirty-plus years; the third generation.
- Visit South Bend Mishawaka, paczki listings (2026) — Macri's at 214 North Niles Avenue.
- South Bend Tribune, bakery coverage (February 2026) — the Hungarian baker of the former Lentsch Bakery and his rye bread, remembered at West End.