The roots of Masi's Italian Superior Bakery go back to the village of San Vitaliano, near the town of Acerra and just a short way north of Naples within the provincia bearing that city's name and within sight of the mighty volcano, Vesuvius. From there to the United States came Salvatore Masi, who in 1912, at the age of 19, immigrated to this country, settling first for a time in Chicago, before moving back east to New York. There he opened his own bakery in the Ozone Park section of Queens, New York, in 1926. After but a few years, however, Salvatore moved along with his growing family back to Chicago where a number of his close relatives were settled and in 1933 he opened the original 'Western Avenue Bread' bakery in the building that still stands at 915 South Western Avenue; Salvatore moved the bakery one more time in 1940, but then just a few doors to the south and into the present location at 933 South Western. In its early days, 'Western Avenue Bread' filled a function for the immediate, predominantly Italian neighbourhood much like that of a village or neighbourhood bakery back in Italy, preparing basic baked goods for the community but also providing oven facilities for those who made their own dough but lacked a home oven.

Out of the ten children in the Masi family, three of the sons still keep the business going: the eldest of the children, Sam, the youngest, Joe, and Frank, who is the man in charge of the actual bread baking. Of course, Frank grew up in and around the bakery but really started to step into the central rôle of baker after returning to Chicago from a stint in the army in 1953. During the 1950's and 1960's, despite the departure of many of the Taylor Street Italians for points west, Western Avenue Bread did a brisk business based in part on the remaining community, in part on sales to suburbanites who would return to the old neighbourhood to stock up on bread, and also in part on deliveries of bread to some of the Italian enclaves to the west and northwest, including all the way out to the Abruzzese community by Irving Park and Cumberland. Given the volume of business, an upgrade in the oven became necessary and in 1960 Frank Masi had a new one, with a capacity of roughly 300 pounds of bread, custom built for the bakery by the Faulds firm of Chicago.

After 71 years of essentially continual, full time operation, the Masis cut their days of baking production down to just four per week in January, 2005. It appears that the end of an era grows nigh, though in the meantime, the residents of Tri-Taylor and those who travel there can still enjoy on most days the pleasure of eating freshly baked bread made by a single master baker who clearly and genuinely loves his work.