ATV’s story begins with Sicilian baker Paolo (Paul) Alberti, who emigrated from Palermo to Reading and opened Alberti’s Bakery in the early 20th century. In those years, Reading supported several small Sicilian bake shops—most notably George Tomasi and Vecchio—that competed for neighborhood customers who wanted traditional, crusty hearth-baked loaves and rolls.
As customer bases overlapped and wholesale accounts became attractive, Alberti’s son Joe Alberti joined forces with the rival families. In 1941 the three shops consolidated under a new name—ATV Bakery, formed from Alberti, Tomasi, and Vecchio. The combined bakery focused on larger-scale production of Italian breads and rolls while preserving Sicilian techniques and recipes.
After the war, the partnership gradually simplified. Vecchio divested his shares in the 1950s, and George Tomasi retired in 2004, leaving operations solely with the Albert/Alberti family. That ownership structure—family-run and recipe-driven—has defined ATV in the modern era.
ATV became best known for hearth-baked “hard” Italian rolls (a crunchy crust and hearty crumb) and pan-baked “soft” rolls (an “Americanized” texture), the kinds of bread that anchor hoagies, cheesesteaks, meatball sandwiches, and dinner tables across Berks County. Over time the line expanded to New York–style steak rolls in multiple lengths, kaiser and dinner rolls, Italian loaves (sliced or unsliced), party loaves up to six feet, par-baked pizza shells (round and Sicilian square), dough by the pound, and specialty loaves like cinnamon raisin, whole wheat, and black Russian. These products—delivered fresh daily—made ATV a behind-the-scenes supplier for delis, markets, pizzerias, and events throughout the region.
Despite remaining a single-facility, family operation, ATV steadily professionalized distribution and quality control. A fourth-generation profile noted more than 40 employees, over 30 daily products, and output of 1,000+ rolls a day, with delivery throughout eastern and central Pennsylvania. The family emphasizes all-natural ingredients, low sodium, and no preservatives, a point they’ve tied to maintaining the old-world texture and flavor.
ATV has long operated from 36 S. 3rd Street, Reading—a block off Penn Street in the city’s historic core—continuing the pattern of immigrant-era bakeries clustering near downtown markets. Today, in addition to walk-in sales at the bakery, customers find ATV bread through local outlets such as stalls at the Fairgrounds Farmers Market and other retailers.
Joe Albert, left, and George Tomasi, two of the original owners of A. T. V. Bakery, stand with the first fleet of trucks at 36 South Third Street, Reading, circa 1949.
By the 2010s–2020s, leadership had passed to brothers Joe and Brad Albert, descendants of Paolo. Company materials describe ATV as a fourth- (and now fifth-) generation bakery still using the original Sicilian recipes that crossed the Atlantic with Paolo. The family’s own short history sums up the ethos succinctly: the “original-recipe, hearth-baked breads and rolls that Paolo brought over from Sicily” are still the core of the business, eight decades after ATV was formed.
ATV’s trajectory mirrors the broader Italian-American story in Reading: an immigrant craft adapted to industrial and wholesale scales without shedding identity. The bakery’s consolidation model (merging competing Sicilian shops into one producer) is typical of mid-century ethnic trades that sought efficiency while preserving neighborhood tastes. For generations of Berks Countians, ATV rolls have been the quiet constant beneath hoagies at markets, cheesesteaks at grills, and platters at church picnics and family events.
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