A Tea Cake Saga Part 2: The Martino's Mystery 
by Kristin Franklin

As I experienced my first directly-from-the-source Martino’s tea cake experience, I wondered why the bakery has not boasted about their tea cakes, using them as a marketing tool for profitability.  Why have they kept their signature product on the down-low, so to speak?  It’s been a mystery to me.

Even before my first visit, I Googled “Martino’s Bakery” with hopes of hundreds of hits worth of stunning write-ups, rave reviews, and personal home pages dedicated to the legendary tea cake.  The actual results:

1)  An article on Inc.com explaining the unfortunate reasons for Martino’s temporary closing in April of 1998.  I think the parties involved should have had a tea cake eating contest to resolve the issues, no hands allowed.  Much laughing would have ensued, then napping.

2)  PubCrawler.com informing me that there are “6 Beer Places within 5 miles” of Martino’s Bakery.  Thank you, PubCrawler.  Next time I go for tea cakes I’ll be sure to pair them with a nice chocolaty stout for contrast.

3)  A website called TakeoutEZ, which posts menus and expedites ordering for food service establishments who sign up for the service.  Martino’s has apparently registered for the free basic service, but “has not entered their information.”  Bummer.

4)  The Cheap Eats LA section on deconcierge.com featuring Billy’s Deli of Glendale on their A to Z guide.  Here we have our first mention of tea cakes!  Billy sells Martino’s tea cakes at his deli for a near 50% profit.  Billy knows a good tea cake when he sees one, and he is taking advantage.

5)  Citysearch.com Best Bakery results:  Martino’s as a bakery is rated 8.7 out of 10 (not bad), but I was unable to find any member reviews on the bakery.  Nary a tea cake mentioned.

OK, I obviously wasn’t getting the results I had hoped for.  I tried searching for “Martino’s tea cakes” instead.  Only one hit:  a personal webpage by a guy named Steve with a link to photos of what seems to be day camp.  One photo, actually titled “Martino’s tea cakes!”  shows rows of the boxed goodies (they look authentic) at what appears to be camp registration.  This photo alone has been viewed 77 times.  This is what I’m talking about!  Thank you, Steve, for your small but truly passionate tribute.  But I wanted more.

So, I searched “Martino’s Bakery” + “tea cakes,” and all combinations thereof.  I found one more restaurant that features the cakes on their menu:  Dish in La Canada .  Getting there…

Then, I omitted the apostrophe in “Martino’s.”  This last step led me to the most anticipated hit of all:  The Original Martino’s Bakery Webpage.  As I waited for the page to load, I had hopes of a giant tea cake photo, perhaps animated, gracing the opening window.  However, to my disappointment, the page is under construction (although there is a nice little introductory story briefly describing the bakery’s history).  Sigh…

A little more detective work found me searching “tea cake” in the archives of the LA Times webpage.  To my surprise, an article about the re-opening of the bakery in 1999 was featured in the Times’ Food section some 5 years ago.  The title intrigued me, but latimes.com only teased me with a small excerpt from the archived article, prompting me to pay $2.95 to purchase 60 days worth of access to the entire content.  I actually considered paying the price, but the registration process was too annoyingly time consuming that I gave up.  But I took my free excerpt, which made me happy.

From “The Return of the Burbank Tea Cake” by Amelia Saltsman, Los Angeles Times Food Section, October 1999:

The baked goods case near the door stood empty.  Everyone who walked into the new Martino's Bakery midday on a recent Wednesday--myself included--worried that the tea cakes were sold out on opening day.  Those familiar with the venerable Burbank bakery, which closed in 1998, knows these “world famous tea cakes” put Martino's on the map.

World famous!  I knew it!  This is what I’ve been trying to say the whole time!  But where is the evidence of all this world famous-ness?  Does the Pope enjoy a secret pact with Martino’s so he can chow on a few shipped tea cakes every morning for a power breakfast?  Perhaps the Queen of England quietly hoards Martino’s tea cakes, in dozens, to bring out at tea-time every afternoon.  And if the bakery is so “venerable” why aren’t these tea cakes marketed in a more profitable manner?  I don’t know.  It just doesn’t make sense.  How can something this good not be plastered all over the internet, or on billboards along the 101 and the I-5, in the fashion of Andersen’s Pea Soup?

It simply must be that Martino’s, and the city of Burbank , are humbly proud of their precious tea cake, and deservedly so.  There are no low-budget TV commercials with cheesy jingles featuring Martino’s treats.  The street corner nearest the bakery is vacant of a dancing temp employee donning a tea cake costume holding a giant arrow-sign pointing toward the building.  I sort of consider myself lucky to know about these celebrated confectionaries, and I guess the last thing I would want is for Martino’s Bakery to sell out and become a tourist attraction.  That would mean longer lines.