T.Cavallaro and Sons.

What is T. Cavallaro and Sons known for?

Cavallaro is known as Hopkins Street's 1956 Sicilian pasticceria: a piccola room opposite the market, empty fried shells in the window, and a counter that still fills the tube while you stand there.

You come off Footscray station and Hopkins is already Vietnamese, Indian grocers, African coffee. 98 is before the banh mi queue at 116, fascia facing the hall. Inside it is smaller than the drive. Glass. A piping bag. Coffee pots and grinders. A few tables if the house coffee page is still telling the truth about dine-in. Chris Hopkins, shooting for Good Food, still photographs Tony at the glass and a son rolling tubes in the back. You want that window. You sit because the shell is empty until you speak, and the espresso is how you hold a table while the ricotta goes in.

Tommaso and Sarina Cavallaro opened the door in 1956. The house site still tells the Olympic story: Lipari recipes, Tommaso in Melbourne from 1949, handmade cannoli sold to spectators at the MCG. Benedetta Ferrara at Il Globo, 5 April 2022, dates the Hopkins opening a month after those Games. You do not need the calendar fight. You need the room that stayed. Melissa Woodley at SBS Food, 5 October 2022, put Tony on the record: they looked at other premises in the west when Footscray was in a trough, and every time his heart sank because this was where he took his first steps. Behind the counter a kitchen that once doubled as living quarters, bakery one side, family the other. Carmelo and Sera retired in 2022. Tony, Rosa and their son Robert kept the recipes. Good Food still names Andrew on the rolling table. The T. is Tommaso. Directories that split the name at the full stop are a parser, not a second bakery.

Jess Ho at Time Out, 23 September 2019, already watched weekend families mow you over for cannoli towers built for birthdays and christenings. Elizabeth Kulas at Broadsheet, 3 February 2012, heard Tony notice people crossing the city for the craft the way Italians travel for the thing they want. That is why you still queue. Not a cute extra after pho. Destination pastry. The west kept a Sicilian oven while the street learned noodle soup, and the city still drives in for blistered shells and a mid-morning espresso in the same tiny room.

What should you order at T. Cavallaro and Sons?

You should order cannoli piped in front of you, then an espresso at one of the few tables, then decide whether the sitting still wants a box of almond biscuits weighed out like a weekly errand.

The Age Good Food Guide 2025 snack list, 22 November 2024, priced the tube at $5.50 and named three pipes: vanilla custard, chocolate custard, or traditional ricotta, the ratio of two cheeses a family secret. Broadsheet still cites whipped ricotta with marsala and almonds as the older Sicilian line. Ask which shells they have. Ask what it costs today. Watch the bag. That is the sitting. The house cannoli page also sells minis and stacked cakes if you called (03) 9687 4638 ahead, plus packs of empty shells if you actually wanted to fill at home. Those packs are a different job. You came for the filled tube at the glass.

Espresso is how you occupy a table without pretending this is brunch. The house coffee page still sells makers, grinders and cups around the machine. Good Food watches weekly almond-meal biscuits packed into boxes. Pastine di mandorla and amaretti are the gluten-free trademarks, fresh almonds, no peanuts on the premises. Zuddi, cantucci, crostoli if the rotation is on. Weekend rum baba and sfogliatelle if you ordered ahead. Easter lambs from a mould Tommaso's father made more than a century ago. Christmas panettone, pandoro, torrone. You can come only for one cannolo. Two is how you learn whether ricotta or custard was your order.

Eat it in the room or on Hopkins. If you wanted the critic banh mi, 116 is further along and daily. If you wanted Gordon Street almond croissants, that oven is 142 Gordon, south 3011. If you wanted the market tiger roll, stall 223, and the hall is locked Sunday anyway. This door is pastry. Stay long enough to taste it on its own terms.

Hours, payment and queues at T. Cavallaro and Sons

Quoted hours from the house site: closed Monday; Tuesday to Friday 8:30am to 4pm; Saturday 8am to 3pm; Sunday 8:30am to 12pm. Call (03) 9687 4638 if a public holiday is sitting on the week. Last walked 2026-09-17.

Walk-in. There is no booking widget for a cannolo. Cards are normal. Cash still speeds a Hopkins counter. Saturday morning is when the suburb remembers it has a Sicilian shop and the towers come out. Come before you are hungry for lunch. Sunday noon is a hard stop. Monday is closed. Time Out, 2019, still prints weekday 5:30pm and Sunday 12:30pm. That card is how you arrive at dusk and find a dark shop.

How do you get to T. Cavallaro and Sons in Footscray?

You get to T. Cavallaro and Sons by walking Hopkins from Footscray station toward the market, to 98, a street shop opposite the hall, not a stall inside it and not the banh mi queue at 116.

Read the glass. Empty shells. Coffee ephemera. 116 is Nhu Lan. 122 is To's pork buns. 128 is pho, closed Wednesday. You are on the pavement at 98. If you are hunting an aisle you have not arrived. Tram 82 and the station buses hit the same block. The Irving Street deck is the market park if you drove. Hopkins meters if you only came for a tube.

At night this counter is shut. Hopkins after 6pm is pho and Moon Dog at 54. Stay on the lit spine back to the station. A 5:30pm Time Out widget is not a dinner booking. Plan daylight.

What do people mix up about T. Cavallaro and Sons?

They split "T." from Cavallaro at the full stop, hunt a second shop in the market, and never sit the 1956 room.

• 98 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011 only. One shop. Phone (03) 9687 4638.
• Closed Monday. Sunday closes 12pm. House hours, not Time Out 2019.
• Cannoli filled when you order. Ricotta, vanilla custard, chocolate custard.
• Not Nhu Lan at 116. Not stall 223. Not Gordon Street Bakery at 142 Gordon.
• Tony, Rosa and Robert. The T. is Tommaso.

Questions people ask next

Where is T. Cavallaro and Sons?

T. Cavallaro and Sons is at 98 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011, opposite Footscray Market. Footscray station is the nearest train. It is a street pasticceria, not a stall inside the Irving hall.

What are T. Cavallaro and Sons hours?

Closed Monday. Tuesday to Friday 8:30am-4pm, Saturday 8am-3pm, Sunday 8:30am-12pm on the house site. Time Out 2019 still prints later weekday and Sunday closes. Call (03) 9687 4638. Last walked 2026-09-17.

Are T. Cavallaro and Cavallaro two different bakeries?

No. T. Cavallaro and Sons is one Hopkins shop. The initial is Tommaso. Directories that split the name at the full stop are a parsing bug, not a second address.

What should I order at T. Cavallaro and Sons?

Cannoli piped while you wait: ricotta, vanilla custard or chocolate custard. Espresso if you wanted a table. Almond biscuits by the box if that is the weekly errand. Rum baba and sfogliatelle are weekend, order ahead.

Where we checked

• T. Cavallaro and Sons house site
• T. Cavallaro and Sons: about, 1956 Lipari story
• Good Food: T. Cavallaro and Sons (updated 24 July 2026)
• The Age: Melbourne top 20 snacks, cannoli $5.50 (22 Nov 2024)
• Time Out: T Cavallaro and Sons (Jess Ho, 23 Sep 2019)
• Broadsheet: Cannoli at T. Cavallaro and Sons (3 Feb 2012)
• SBS Food: same cannoli it did in 1956 (Melissa Woodley, 5 Oct 2022)
• Il Globo: Italian institution at the heart of Footscray (5 Apr 2022)

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