Pizza Dough Ball Specialists · New Production Facility, Opened 2026 · Shipping Nationwide
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Loaves cooling on wooden racks in the original Al Cohen’s bakery
Buffalo, NY · Since 1888

A Family Business That Kept Its Standard

Covelli Premium Dough Products, formerly Al Cohen’s, has been making dough in Buffalo, NY, for more than 130 years. What changed in 2026 is the plant. What did not change are the recipes and how the dough is judged.

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Historic photograph of an early bakery building on a street corner, with staff in white aprons lined up at the storefront and a horse-drawn wagon at the curb
Our Story

A Legacy Born from
Rye Bread in 1888

The company traces back to 1888, when Joseph Cohen brought his family’s rye baking tradition to Western New York. The Buffalo bakery that followed became Al Cohen’s, known for a rye bread the city still asks for by name. That bakery is the reason any of this exists, and it set the one rule the business has never moved off: the dough has to be right before it leaves the building.

In the 1970s the family did something most of the industry had not tried yet. They flash froze scratch-made dough, so a kitchen could get bakery-quality dough without running a bakery. That decision is what turned a local bread company into a dough manufacturer, and it is still the business we are in today.

The company operates today as Covelli Premium Dough Products. Same recipes, same plant floor discipline, a much narrower focus: pizza dough balls, produced consistently, at the volume a multi-unit operator or a distributor actually needs. Sub rolls and the old world bread lines are still made for the customers who have bought them for years, but pizza dough is the core of the business now.

Company timeline. 1888, a tradition arrives: Joseph Cohen brings his family's centuries-old rye-baking tradition from Poland to Western New York. 1894, the first bakery: the Cohen family opens its Buffalo bakery. 1933, a Buffalo landmark: the bakery relocates to Broadway and Sobieski. 1970s, frozen dough pioneers: the company begins producing frozen dough, pairing scratch-made formulas with modern convenience. 1994, a new generation: Mark DiDomenico and John Blando acquire the business and expand its wholesale reach. 2019, the Covelli chapter: Chris Covelli and an investment group acquire the business, beginning a new era of growth and modernization. 2024, a new name: the frozen dough company becomes Covelli Premium Dough Products, honoring its heritage while defining its future. 2026, built for what's next: operations move into a new 60,000 square foot Buffalo facility with advanced lines, nitrogen freezing and six shipping docks.
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The Facility

60,000 square feet,
two dedicated production lines.

The business outgrew the bakery it started in. What replaced it is a newly renovated 60,000 square foot facility with production equipment chosen for two jobs: consistent pizza dough balls and quality sub and sandwich rolls, at the volume a multi-unit operator or a distributor actually orders. The capacity is there before you need it, so adding locations is a scheduling conversation, not a wall.

High-efficiency dough ball line

Purpose-built for dough balls rather than adapted from general bakery equipment. It portions and rounds to weight at speed, which is what makes one store’s dough ball match another’s.

A dedicated roll line

Sub and sandwich rolls run on their own line, not squeezed between dough ball runs. That is why rolls hold their spec instead of drifting with whatever else is on the floor that day.

Nitrogen freezing tunnels

Dough freezes far faster than it would in a conventional blast freezer. Faster freezing means smaller ice crystals, which is the difference between dough that survives the trip and dough that bakes off slack.

A full test kitchen

Where R&D actually happens, and where we host customer cuttings. You bake your product on our floor, next to what you run today, before a single pallet is scheduled.

Pizza dough balls on stainless trays entering the freezing tunnel
Test Kitchen

Come bake it with us
before you commit.

Our state-of-the-art facility features a fully equipped test kitchen where innovation, production, and customer collaboration come together. New and existing customers have the unique opportunity to watch their actual dough being produced on our manufacturing floor, then move directly into our test kitchen to bake, evaluate, and refine that same product, all in a single visit. From production to finished product, customers can experience the entire process firsthand, gaining valuable insight into the quality, consistency, and craftsmanship behind every dough we make.

Whether you’re developing a new product, refining an existing recipe, or benchmarking your current dough, our team works alongside you to bring your vision to life.

SQF Level II certified*, Kosher certified, FDA and HACCP certified. Documentation is available upon request.

*SQF Level II certification in process.

Baked pizza on a peel beside a tray of dough balls and a deck oven in the Covelli test kitchen
Develop

Match an existing dough, adjust a formulation, or build something new to your spec.

Test

We bake it the way you bake it: your oven type, your temps, your times, your topping load.

Demonstrate

Bring your team in and taste it side by side against what you run today, before anything scales.

Book a Test Kitchen Session
Clean Label

Our Commitment to
Clean Recipes

We are in the process of transitioning our entire product line to unbleached and unbromated flour, without compromising the performance our customers depend on.

Removing bleached and bromated flour from our products is the first and most important step in our clean-label commitment. From there, we will continue evaluating our formulations and eliminating unnecessary additives over time, while maintaining the consistency, handling, proofing, and bake quality our customers expect.

Our goal is simple: cleaner, more transparent recipes made with ingredients that serve a purpose, and dough that performs consistently in real-world operations.

For custom and co-manufactured products, clean-label requirements can also be built into the formulation from the beginning, giving our customers a product designed around both their ingredient standards and operational needs.

Let's Talk Volume

Put your dough program on one line.

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