Montville ― Giuliano’s Bakery, a downtown Niantic mainstay for 30 years, is opening a second location here.

The Montville bakery, which is expected to open by the end of next month in the former Radgowski Deli-Mart building at 303 Route 163, will carry all the same items as the one currently in Niantic, co-owner Jack Giuliano said during an interview at the Niantic location this past week.

“And maybe more,” he teased.

One big difference with the new bakery is that it will offer increased indoor seating ― six to eight tables as opposed to Niantic’s three ― along with free WiFi for customers.

Giuliano talked as he sat at one of those tables in the current bakery’s modest storefront on Niantic’s Main Street. Outside, along with a couple more tables reminiscent of European-style cafes, the store’s recognizable fiberglass baker statue, complete with chef’s hat, red apron and mustache, beckons customers inside for breads, pastries and bagels.

“And then our sandwiches,” Giuliano said . “That’s what we’re known for.”

The bread, which Giuliano said is made from a Brooklyn, N.Y. recipe from 1938, will be trucked to the Montville store from the Niantic store, he said. The bakery already delivers to about 75 other local restaurants and cafes.

Pastries and bagels will be baked on-site in Montville.

Giuliano lamented the decline of the small-town bakery as hot coffee warmed on a burner, iced coffee whirled in a spinning machine and the smell of warming dough wafted.

The Montville bakery is the first of several more bakeries he hopes to open.

“Our whole idea is, the hometown bakery has diminished over the years. So we’re going to bring it back,” Giuliano said.

“I think part of the problem was, years ago the supermarkets took it over,” he added. “But through that they lost the freshness. They lost the quality.”

His reasoning for bringing a new location to Montville: “Every town deserves its own bakery.” The town currently does not have a brick-and-mortar, standalone bakery, said Mayor Leonard Bunnell.

Work on the new shop has already begun, Giuliano said, with crews installing a handicapped-accessible bathroom and entrance in the old deli-mart.

Giuliano said the new store will feature either a replica of the baker statue or a cutout that will emulate it.

“I found another one in New Jersey,” he said. “They won’t ship it. I’m still trying to find the details (of transporting it to Connecticut).”

‘Someone’s always here’

Behind the counter of the Niantic bakery around noon Monday, two experienced workers diligently cut squares of pastry and mixed dough. Inside a 43-year-old oven, which Giuliano has claimed as the secret to the shop’s popular bread, trays of sfogliatella rotated around a wheel, visibly crisping into their final golden forms.

The new store will be hiring new people.

The corner of the beautiful workshop, warm and strong with the smell of fresh-baked bread, was stacked high with 50-lb sacks of flour, which he said the bakery burns through at a rate of 300-per-week. Flour deliveries are constant.

Asked to explain why bakeries have become less common, Giuliano cited the round-the-clock hours and strong work ethic required to stay in the business.

“It’s a hard living,” Giuliano admitted. “You’re not just buying stuff and selling it. You’ve gotta make what you’re selling.”

Giuliano joked they don’t even have a key for the shop.

“Someone’s always here,” he added.

His son Joe Giuliano, who co-owns the bakery, said the only day the bakery is closed is Christmas. If it was OK with his family, he would keep the store open that day too, to provide customers their Christmas loaves. Jack recalled when they used to open Christmas, and that the lines were always long.

d.drainville@theday.com