In America today, the cannoli is considered a quintessential Italian pastry, a staple at Italian delis and bakeries.
Mundelein pastry shop Tony Cannoli, owned by Tony Volpentesta, certainly fits the image of a small, local Italian shop, and Volpentesta even learned the trade from his Italian grandmother.
But his inspiration to start a cannoli shop actually came from an island several thousand miles away from Sicily, where the cannoli was first born — Japan. In fact, prior to 2012, Volpentesta said he had no background in baking at all.
“I could barely make a peanut butter jelly sandwich,” Volpentesta joked. He had studied business at Marquette University, and was working in the running industry when he found himself in Japan for a marathon in 2012.
“Afterwards, we traveled around to a bunch of different places,” he said. “I fell in love with Japanese food, Japanese culture, and their culture through their food.”
The experience sparked a key connection in his mind, Volpentesta said, between traditional Japanese sushi and the cannoli.
“It’s a three-ingredient dish best eaten served to order,” he said. “Made immediately, eaten immediately.”
When he returned to the U.S., he went to his Italian grandmother to learn how to make cannoli, who was excited to pass on her family recipes. Volpentesta spent months learning with her, and many more tweaking the recipe to make it his own. He ended up removing the traditional bubbles typically seen on the cannoli shell, preferring a more consistent texture.
The exact recipe is a family secret, known today only to himself and his sister since his grandmother died.
“When she was still alive, every cannoli I made was the best cannoli she had ever eaten. So she was great at being a grandma, because I know they weren’t all the greatest,” Volpentesta said, laughing.
He started learning in 2013, and afterwards began selling at area markets. The brick-and-mortar pastry shop wouldn’t come for several years.
The small building is a former pizza place for which Volpentesta had actually worked. When the owners decided to consolidate their business at their Libertyville location, they jokingly proposed that he take over the building.
“I didn’t think anything of it, and then I went home and thought about it a little more, and I’m like, ‘Wait, maybe that’ll work,’” Volpentesta recalled.
It’s been a “blessing” that fell into his lap, he said. Having grown up in Mundelein, it was a “little homecoming” to open his shop in the village in 2016.
While Volpentesta had initially imagined offering 30 different cannoli flavors, today the shop offers a much more conservative, and far more manageable, eight, which he considers, “a good sweet spot.” Other creations have been added to the menu since, using the building block ingredients of cannoli, including cannoli cake and cannoli shakes.
Tony Cannoli also offers classes, something that began in 2017 when a regular, interested in baking, asked if he could bring his family in to watch the cannoli being made. While it wasn’t something he’d anticipated starting out nine years ago, Volpentesta said it’s been a part of the business’ organic growth.
The shop also does demo shows, which he compared to a cooking show, where attendees are provided a cannoli kit afterward to try it themselves at home, and shipping which became big during COVID, he said.
Volpentesta enjoys the life of a pastry shop owner, although it’s “more lifestyle than business.” After nearly a decade, he said he’s looking forward to 2025 and hopes to focus on growing the business.
“I want to get out there and spread the word,” he said. “I love getting cannoli in front of people any way we can. I hope by meeting different people and going into different avenues, I’m confident those opportunities will come up.”
Volpentesta said Tony Cannoli will be closed from Jan.20-28, but he invites people to drop by when it reopens on Jan. 29.
