So how did I spend my Friday morning?  Just look at the picture and see.  I made a quick stop at the new twin location of Gaspare's Bakery/Gaspare's Italian Diner at 11020 South Pikes Peak Drive (in the Victorian Peaks development along Parker's main artery) and stuffed my face full of the best of owner Gaspare Licata's baked goods.

Matter of fact, that picture above doesn't even show the whole of my breakfast. Missing is the fantastic loaf of Italian bread pulled warm off the rack and the chocolate-stuffed pastries dusted with powdered sugar. Still, it was the little pignoli cookies--the best I've ever had--that truly moved me: perfectly baked so that they were soft, almost chewy like macaroons, and rich with a powerful almond flavor barely tempered by the nuttiness of the namesake pignoli studding the tops.  There were two left when I took the picture, but that was only because I'd already eaten four.

Gaspare's has only been open for about three weeks now, but it seems as though Licata (who used to own Vincenza's Italian Bakery at 8000 West 44th Avenue) and his crew--or at least those on bakery side of the operation--have already shaken off any opening-day jitters. And I can't wait to get back and see what the guys on the diner side can do.