Myself and my wife are considered something called 'snowbirds'since we drive down to Vero Beach Florida every year from Chicago for the winter. Chicago has an abundance of wonderful authentic Italian pastry shops as well as other places like NY. We love them all.
When we heard of an Italian pastry shop in Vero Beach called Fararras Italian Bakery we were excited and were more excited when we got there and the owner said they were from Brooklyn and continue to keep the family old world charm alive.
So we ordered a ton of pastries that looked fantastic. We were planning on enjoying these later in the evening and also with some company the next day.
Before leaving I noticed they also sold cold cuts. So we decided to purchase a half pound of balogna so we can make some sandwichesforlunch when we got home. When we got into the car, we immediately smelt something that was wrong. It was the balogna.
It was old and we had to throw it out when wegot home. We chalked it up to they are an Italian pastry shop not a deli giving them the benefit of the doubt.
That evening we tried to enjoy some of the pastries and they weren't authentic at all. What was supposed to be different kinds ofItalian creams includingthefamous cannoli cream we didn't get it. It was mostly cheap whip cream taking its place.
I guess for those who wouldn't know any better it might holdup. But we were rather upset to say the least.
Then a friend called to saythat my son and his wife were planning a surprise visit for their20th anniversary and I know how much they love a cannoli cake.
SoI said to my wife, maybe we should call that bakery and explain our problem and maybe they can put together a good cannoli cake and we agreed.
So I called and spoke to the owner and I toldhim the problems we hadincluding the cold cuts he said we probablybought the balognaat a time in the season when they don't get much traffic and that's why it may have had an odor. I couldn'tbelieve it!
But when I told him about the whip cream he assured me that for this cannoli cake only the best and traditional ingredients will be used and he sounded very convincing so I ordered the cake. But he said...
Since this was a special order that also invloved pricey ingredients he needed a $50 deposit. So myself and my wife drove over there and gave him $50 cash.
When we picked up the cake I gave him the balance in cash which was $44. So we now left there very happy that we now have a traditional $94 cannolicake.
Later that evening when we brought the cake out as a surprise we ALL were certainly surprised to find out that he used that cheap whip cream. Did he think we wouldn't know the difference of cannoli cream andPure Whip? We got screwed big time.
When I calledhim for the next few days I couldn't get himon the phone. So we dropped by occaisionally to try and catch him in and when we finally didhewas just about foaming at the mouth with insults and it was quite scary.
That's all we can say. That was ourexperience. Needless to say we are never going back. What a shame and what a sham on that community.
This place is a disgrace!
All we can say is to stay away at all means.
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