A Brooklyn bakery has found a unique way to honor New York City’s sports teams with a traditional Italian pastry.

Fortunato Brothers Bakery in Williamsburg, which was founded in 1976, says its most popular dessert, by far, is its rainbow cookies, but there are plenty of items being created on any given day.


What You Need To Know

  • Fortunato Brothers Bakery was founded in 1976 by three brothers from Italy

  • It is located on Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg

  • The bakery is selling Knicks and Rangers rainbow cookies to celebrate the teams' playoff runs 

"My father and my two uncles came from Italy, opened up, and Mike was the baker, the rest it pretty much history," said Biagio Fortunato, owner of the bakery on Manhattan Avenue.

The almond-based spongy cookies, sometimes called tri-color or seven-layer cookies, have been customers' favorite for years. And while the cookies traditionally represent the colors of the Italian flag, the bakery is putting a twist on an old favorite.

Customers will see rainbow cookies offered in red, white and blue for the New York Rangers, or blue and orange for the New York Knicks. The bakery created the colors to show support for the teams as they continue their playoff runs.

“That was the goal of it was just to get into the whole aspect of the playoff sports. We have different fan bases that go in so, why not,” Fortunato said.

Though rainbow cookies aren’t exactly the easiest to bake. Fortunato said the process of making a batch takes around 24 hours.

“The process is just to spread them out evenly, bake off, then they have to cool, you have to layer them, you have to stack them, they have to sit so they stay together, and they don't fall apart,” Fortunato said.

As fans of New York sports, the folks at the bakery hope to make plenty more of these in the coming weeks.

"During the whole month of May hopefully we will go round by round," Fortunato said.

As they say in the sports world, one game at a time. Or in this case, one cookie at a time.