South Union Bakery

Bread: Gateway Market is proud to feature South Union breads. South Union breads are baked fresh daily, all natural and made from scratch-nothing frozen or "par-baked." South Union Bakery was established in 1996 by George Formaro who created the special recipes and processes based on his desire to make authentic Italian bread. There are no chemicals, extenders, preservatives or additives added to the dough, so our breads are good for you. It freezes well and is totally composed of flour, water, yeast and salt unless otherwise noted. While we fill our bakery everyday with classic styles of old world bread, every season and holiday brings new selections including challah, stollen, panettone and many more.

The South Union Bakery Story
After 11 years in its original location at 1701 South Union in Des Moines, South Union Bakery moved to a new home at Gateway Market. The artisan bakery creates handmade loaves of various Italian breads and distributes its popular products to the new Gateway Market, area restaurants and grocery stores.

The move marked a bitter-sweet transition for the booming bakery. The location on South Union was home to George Formaro’s aunt and uncle’s family business, Desio’s Italian Grocery. The history of the building, erected in 1931, will be hard to leave behind as Tomaso Desio came to the United States in 1913 from Italy and built the structure. His son, Joe Desio (George’s uncle) took over the store in 1945 and ran it until his retirement in 1976.

To keep up with the thriving demand for high-quality specialty breads, owner George Formaro and partners made the decision to move the entire operation from its original 1,182 square foot location to the lower level of the Gateway Market facility located at the corner of Woodland Ave & Martin Luther King Junior Parkway in Des Moines, Iowa. With over 4,000 square feet, the space allowed South Union Bakery to greatly expand its offerings.  The tiny bakery has been cranking out an average of 5,000 loaves of bread each week with just two double-decker pizza ovens, a wood burning oven, proofer, French mixer and two walk-in coolers.

The new location at Gateway Market features cutting edge, commercial grade equipment including Cervap steam tube ovens. These state-of-the-art ovens duplicate the baking environment of a brick oven, but allow the bakery to produce a wide variety of products at a single temperature at the same time. The extremely efficient equipment allowed Formaro’s team to more than double their production and introduce at least twelve new specialty breads into the market.

“Bread Rises to High Art at the South Union Bread...South Union’s Focaccia is truly wonderful, the best in town.”  —Des Moines Register Datebook

“George Formaro puts his heart and soul into every loaf of bread he makes.”
—Des Moines Register

“This bakery bakes as good of bread as any bakery in Iowa.  South Union is a real scratch baker and Formaro never uses any trans fat, nor sugars.”
  —Jim Duncan, Food Dude, Cityview