This Inspirational Maltese Couple In Toronto Turned Down $2 Million To Continue Making Pastizzi
All photos by Tyler Anderson for the National Post
The Maltese diaspora can be as strong a representative of Maltese tenacity as anyone on the island, and the Buttigiegs in Toronto sure go to prove it. Antoinette and Charlie Buttigieg run the Malta Bake Shop – a small bakery specialising in Maltese food in Toronto – and have been ever since they purchased the building in 1983.
However, they are now caught in the middle of a gentrification sweep as rich developers are swopping into Toronto’s Dundad Street West and buying up lots to develop into townhouses, the National Post reported.
Pictured: When developers literally come knocking
One such developer approached the Maltese couple with an impressive sum
“He offered us a million dollars for the bakery and a million dollars for the house next door, which we also own — so two million dollars,” said Antoinette.
The Maltese have been here since the 1920s. This building has a history. What are we going to do if we sell, we’re not young — but we’re not old — and this shop has been 40-years of our lives. For me, it is not a job. I feel like the shop is more like our living room and our customers, they are like family. and what would we do without our family?” she asked.
They refused the millions and went right back to making pastizzi for their loyal customers
Without batting an eyelid, the Buttigiegs went back to work.
Their bakery is frequented by tons of other Maltese in the area, as well as non-Maltese people who love the taste of the traditional pastizzi, timpana and honey rings they serve. Antoinette is in the bakery practically all year round, only taking a day off on Christmas and New Year’s.
But it’s the bond between the couple that keeps the place going strong
“I love my wife for so many things,” Charlie says. “We argue, too, but, you know, the older people in Malta, they might not have had much education, but they had all these sayings and her father used to say to me: ‘If the water doesn’t get rough sometimes — it stinks.’”
They have four children together, raised in the bakery, three of whom are teachers in the city and the eldest, Josef, the eldest, who is a stem cell researcher at the University of Regina, and have become a central part of the fabric of the Canadian city. People from all over come to visit them and feel like they are back in Malta.
“We don’t live in this area, but we come back to it, because it’s a small part of Malta — it reminds us of home. On Sunday mornings after mass you can’t get a seat in here, because it’s all Maltese,” says Reno Ellul, a 79-year-old retired tailor. He and his wife Helen will drive across town every now and then for the ravioli, and to buy some more frozen pastizzi.
With regular visitors from all over North America as well as Malta – President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca just visited last April – it seems like the Malta Bake Shop still has some good years ahead of it, no matter who comes knocking.
How awesome are the Buttigiegs?
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