The Family-Owned Bakery That Jack Nicholson Loves

Jack Nicholson is one of the most legendary actors of all time, but it turns out he's just like the rest of us in one critical sense: he's obsessed with bread. And not just any old dough, one very specific loaf. The star of "Batman" and "The Shining" is a devoted fan of fresh-baked bread from Perreca's Bakery in Schenectady, New York. Nicholson's enthusiasm for Perreca's loaves dates back to the 1980s, when he was in the area filming the 1987 period drama "Ironweed." As legend has it, Nicholson's driver took him to Perreca's for a bit of local flavor, and it was love at first bite.

The New Jersey-born actor has surely visited more than a few Italian-American bakeries in his life, but something about Perreca's clearly hit differently. Nicholson had the bread delivered to the "Ironweed" set daily for the remainder of shooting, and over the past four decades, he hasn't let the short shelf life of the freshly baked loaves get in the way of his passion for Perreca's. Apparently, he regularly has the coveted bread shipped to Los Angeles, where he keeps it closely guarded in his freezer (by the way, here's how long frozen bread can last before going bad). To Nicholson, Perreca's dough is more important than any other kind of dough — in a 2017 interview, Perreca's co-owner Maria Papa told WMHT that the actor has said he'd rather give money than bread to high-profile producers who pay a visit to his Hollywood residence.

Jack Nicholson's longstanding connection undeniably adds to Perreca's star power, but the bakery boasts an impressive reputation in its own right. The family-owned spot was founded in 1913 by Salvatore and Carmella Perreca, immigrants from the Campania region of Italy, and has been baking up locally legendary loaves in Schenectady for over a century. Unsurprisingly, the crusty, thick-crusted Neapolitan-style bread is famous across the region. Perreca's has been named one of the best bakeries in the state of New York, which is no easy feat considering the Empire State's wealth of wonderful bakeshops.

It's worth noting that Nicholson isn't the bakery's only famous patron – the actor's "Ironweed" co-star Meryl Streep reportedly visited Perreca's, and Kathleen Turner and David Letterman have also stopped in. However, it's safe to say no one is quite as loyal a fan as Nicholson. Beyond the iconic brick-oven baked bread, Perreca's is also regionally renowned for its Neapolitan-style tomato pie (which joins this list of once-popular pizza styles that are slowly disappearing). No matter how you slice it, Jack Nicholson's decades-long love affair with Perreca's loaves is certainly worth a toast.