With the Buffalo Sabres making the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2011 — and everyone around Western New York taking notice — a Niagara Falls institution has created a special offering to commemorate the occasion.
Ahead of the Sabres’ first-round matchup with the Boston Bruins on Sunday, DiCamillo Bakery has unveiled its new limited-edition Sabre Bread. The sword-shaped loaf can be between 20 and 22 inches long and is only available at DiCamillo locations in Niagara and Erie counties.
The loaf is made from the bakery’s Italian bread to mostly look like a baguette with poppy seeds covering the handle. Matthew DiCamillo, company president, hopes that the bread can be the team’s good luck charm during the playoffs.
“Ever since the Sabres started playing better, we talked internally about some hockey-related product to cheer on the local team,” said DiCamillo. “We came back after Easter, and we thought, why not do a sabre?”
The last time DiCamillo’s had a big Sabres-related item was sugar cookies with hockey designs on them when the team made back-to-back conference finals in the mid-2000s. The bakery has offered Bills Bread in the past, which were loaves colored red, white and blue.
Each loaf is sold for $21.99 and comes shrink-wrapped on a white board. DiCamillo said it would be best for customers to place orders for them either over the phone or online, with initial batches selling out quickly.
“We made five or six, then sold twice that many in a day, then twice as many the next day,” DiCamillo said. “We’re trying to get ahead of it since they are selling pretty fast.”
These are not the only hockey-related items DiCamillo’s has during this playoff run. They also have sugar cookies for $5 and hockey pucks made of chocolate brownies for $6.