Joseph’s Bakery, San Pedro, CA – 20 MAR 2013

Located at 1027 S. Meyler Street in San Pedro, Joseph’s Bakery has existed for 47 years which means it’s lived here only a few years longer than me.
This icon has only used word of mouth to get people in the door. Open 5 AM to mid-afternoon (Tue-Sat), the secret is to get there before the sun rises. I found the place looking like this at 9:00 AM:
They were sold out of most everything, so I was only able to try the lemon bars and brownies (which were great)! Determined to find out what all the hype was about, I decided to return at 5 AM but overslept and got there by 6.
Now it looked more promising:
This Mom and Pop business is still run by the original couple. Rosa Tuberosi, pictured above, runs the front counter and her husband, Carmine gets up at 1 AM to start the baking.
They have several items made from the same croissant dough; I went for the custard filled, chocolate croissant and one with frosting.  The rounded white frosting item was almond flavored and the small powdered sugar item goes by many names: Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Walnut Butterballs, Snowball Cookies. My mothers’ version was called Swedish Tea Cakes.
After picking out the pastries, I said, “Tell me about the pizza.” The reply was, “It’s just coming out of the oven, now. We sell it by the slice, $1.75 each.” So I took couple of  slices to go. It was also very good!