Sal De Riso Costa d’Amalfi

Lemon runs the counter

The lemon pastries explain this Minori pasticceria faster than anything else. La delizia, profiteroles and the babà al limoncello, finished with lemon leaves and fresh fruit, set the house register: citrus as flavour, as decoration and as a statement of where you are standing. Limone Costa d'Amalfi IGP is the anchor ingredient, joined by Giffoni hazelnuts, annurche apples, white figs, good chocolate and Belgian cultured butter.

The shop is broader than a single-dessert counter. Pastry sits alongside gelato, preserves, liqueurs, savoury items and branded products, so the case reads as a coastal pantry rather than a cake display. Preserves lean to original vegetable-and-fruit combinations meant for breakfast, for fillings or for small savoury plates. A conventional bread lineup is not the point here; the sweet programme is, and it runs through named cakes, regional fruit and citrus. The house holds Gambero Rosso's Tre Torte for 2026.

A premium counter with casual dress

Quality here comes from craft rather than formality. Salvatore De Riso is a master pastry chef and one of the Amalfi Coast's best-known ambassadors, and the shop carries that reputation without turning into a dining room. Service is over a counter, and the pull is the display: pastries, gelato, liqueurs, savoury products, preserves and gift goods all belong to the same world.

The atmosphere is colourful and fragrant, closer to a celebration of Mediterranean sweetness than a quiet tasting room. The range is wide enough that two people can leave with completely different things, one carrying a whole cake and the other a jar of preserve and a scoop of gelato.

Order the delizia first, then decide how far to take the lemon

Start with la delizia to read the house style quickly. It anchors the lemon-led identity and shows the balance of cream, fruit and finish. Move to profiteroles for the same citrus direction in another form, or to the babà al limoncello for a soaked, liqueur-driven version of the same idea. To branch outward, take gelato, a liqueur or a jar of preserve and see how the pastry counter connects to the wider coastal pantry.

The backstory matters to what is in the case. Salvatore De Riso was born in Minori in 1966, trained at the hotel management school in Salerno, worked in hotel kitchens in Ravello and Maiori, and committed to pastry at twenty-one. Local Minori artisans supported the early work, and his wife has been a driving force in the shop's development. That grounding is why the range keeps returning to Amalfi lemons, Giffoni hazelnuts and annurche apples rather than to imported fashions.