Soon after the clock strikes midnight on Halloween, the grand escalators at @eatalytoronto are flanked by walls of festively wrapped bread by brands such as Bonifanti, Balocco, Borsari, Vergani, Galup and Tommaso Muzzi. Panettone has been one of the gourmet supermarket’s bestselling categories in Canada since the Toronto store opened in 2019. The uptick in interest since then has been overwhelming. Last year in particular saw exponential growth, with the retailer selling more than 20,000 units of panettone (and its plainer counterpart, pandoro) over the holiday season. The value of its eye-catching packaging shouldn’t be discounted. “Brands are trying to preserve the iconic graphics of their house, and if they opened in 1944, that aspect is what they keep. Some are hand-decorated. More and more and more,” Alessandro Fucile, the director of grocery for Eataly North America, says. “Next to the quality itself, it’s about display.” Read @jadedjournalista’s full story at the link in bio. Photo by @galit_r.