I just got back from another amazing trip to Boston. I stayed a few days more this time and did all the touristy things including a trip to Mike’s Pastry. First time I saw it was at Harvard Square. It was a nice looking shop with some patrons. It caught my eye as I was sitting directly across from it inside Au Bon Pain. The next day I did the Freedom Trail. As I got closer to the North End, I started noticing different groups of people holding boxes from Mike’s Pastry. All along the Freedom Trail in the North End part, all I saw were people holding the boxes and taking pics and selfies with them. My curiosity peaked. If that many people were getting pastries from that place and even taking pics with them, it’s gotta be 11 on the scale of 10. I googled its location on my phone and made a special trip over. What I saw blew my mind. There were at least 6 lines and all of them extended beyond the doors. The amazing part was, the lines didn’t cease. It felt as if the lines are always this long all day. Bostonians who are familiar can correct me if my impression is wrong.
Here are a couple of pics to show the crowd inside (whatever you see, multiply by 5 times):
It’s famous for its cannolis. They sell other stuff too like cakes and pastries. Take it from me, don’t even get distracted. Only get the cannolis even if they cost a whopping $4 each. I had its chocolate mocha cake and it was less than underwhelming. Its cannolis were way better. I cannot help but think about how much profit they make per cannoli. They offer different flavors of cannolis but really, they are pretty much the same except for the dips at the end, and most share common dips like the chocolate chips. Mass production of these different flavored cannolis must be easy since they are all similarly made. There is definitely economies of scale here. I’m pretty sure the gross profit margin is almost 100%. There has gotta be at least 1000 customers a day (based on what I saw on Saturday). Each customer will not walk away with only 1 cannoli. What a fantastic business to be running.
Then came the question in my head. How did it get to be so popular and famous that tourists in Boston need to stop and get it? The cannoli is good but not $4 good. Also, based on the lack of crowd at the Harvard Square location (where the customers are mostly locals instead of tourists like the North End one), I feel its name/fame precedes it. It has got to be due to its history in Boston that made it a must-stop for tourists. I just did some googling and it turns out the founder was an immigrant from Italy. His family moved to North End when he was 12 and he started learning how to make Italian pastries from his cousin. He started Mike’s Pastry, became successful and kept giving back to the North End community. He was famous and well-liked in the community. Mike’s Pastry doesn’t have the best cannoli in the world but its taste is maintained. That’s how they keep the fame and popularity going.
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