Try walking past Aversa's Italian Bakery in Margate and not walking in. The sweet aromas of fresh bread, cinnamon buns and pizzas baking are enough to make the most disciplined eater break down. Once inside, the sights of cream-filled donuts, seeded breads, cannolli, Italian cookies, gigantic meatballs and more will destroy any willpower you may have left.

Aversa's has been an institution in Turnersville since 1982, when Ralph Aversa, Sr. opened his first location, followed by his second in Brigantine in 2002. But the Margate location starts a new chapter in the family business; it's the first owned and operated by his son, Ralph Aversa Jr., and his wife Elizabeth.

"We have been looking around for a long time, and we finally found two nice-sized properties that we could join together and create what we always wanted," says Aversa Jr., "I've been working with my Dad for a long time, but this is my first store with my wife. It takes a little time to adjust working with your wife, but it has been fun because I get to see her more. We really enjoy being in Margate. People really like coming in and looking around and making it an experience."

If you've eaten and shopped in southern New Jersey, there's a good chance you've eaten Aversa's bread. With breads and rolls in local ShopRite and Acme markets, the bakery also bakes breads for many southern New Jersey restaurants, including The Inlet in Somers Point, and casinos that include Harrah's Resort and Showboat Casino-Hotel.

Like most bakeries, the action starts early in Margate, as bakers get there early to have everything ready when the doors open at 7 a.m. By 8:30 a.m., the place is packed - especially on summer weekends - as locals grab fresh coffee, homemade donuts, hot cinnamon buns, pastries, and Aversa's signature puff pastry squares filled with sweet cream cheese called cheese pockets.

When lunchtime rolls around, the pizzas get more play. A lighter version of a traditional Sicilian-style, the pizzas range from tomato pie to a white style made with American cheese and thinly sliced tomatoes and topped with hot peppers.

The sandwiches - made on fresh-baked, 10-inch, seeded rolls - are also popular, particularly the homemade breaded chicken cutlet with fresh broccoli rabe and sharp provolone, as well as the sausage and peppers with provolone.

Although the other retail locations offer prepared foods, Aversa Jr. says the Margate location is doing particularly well with them, offering hand-rolled, gigantic, beef and veal meatballs in marinara, fresh bruschetta and long hots stuffed with prosciutto and provolone saut�ed in white wine.

"We are actually going to expand on the prepared foods more because people really seem to want that in Margate," Aversa Jr. says. "So we are offering things in here that we may not have in the other locations. For example, my wife is Polish, so she made homemade pierogi, and we can't keep them in here. They are flying out of the case."

There's even a small Italian market section of the store that features imported olive oils and Philadelphia Ninth Street staples that include a wide variety of cheeses from Di Bruno Bros. and pastas from Taluttos Pasta and P&S Ravioli Company.

"We're even working on offering our marinara sauce in our own private label," Aversa, Jr., says. "With three locations, it makes sense now."

So far, Aversa's and Margate seem like a good pairing.

"There's really nothing else like it in Margate, and a lot of people are from South Philly there and really know us and love what we offer," Aversa, Jr., says. "We're getting a lot of feedback, and people seem to be genuinely happy that we're here."

Aversa's History and Bread

Ralph Aversa Sr. was born in St. Catarina, in Calabria, Italy, where he worked as an apprentice in his uncle's small bakery. He came to Philadelphia in the early 1960s at the age of 14, working in Cacia's bakery in South Philly, eventually marrying into the Cacia family and later moving to New Jersey to open Aversa's in Turnersville, which was a one-room operation when it debuted in 1982.

Now with three locations - the others are in Margate and Brigantine - the bread remains the major attraction. Prepared in a 35,000-square-foot factory in Turnersville, then proofed and baked on premises in Margate and Brigantine, there are more than 40 different bread items available at Aversa's.

"Between rolls and breads, whites, ryes and wheats, focaccias, pizzas, strombolis … there's a lot of bread," says Ralph Aversa Jr., owner of the Margate location with his wife, Elizabeth. "Taste is everything. My Dad says it's all about the water; that's why he won't let it be made anywhere else other than Turnersville. The bread is a mix of old world and new world. It has a nice crunch on the outside, yet it's light and airy on the inside. Our bread is made with semolina flour, which is the same flour you make pasta with. It's great for flavor and offers that nice, soft, crusty texture."