'It's magic': Cacia's Bakery continues Thanksgiving turkey tradition in South Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Every Thanksgiving, between 120 and 150 customers show up outside Cacia's Bakery in Philadelphia, some arriving as early as 3 a.m., just to have their turkeys baked inside their brick oven.

And Joe Cacia says he understands why.

"It's juicy from the bricks, it doesn't dry out. You can see it, man, it's magic! You can see it. It's magic at Cacia's," Cacia said.

But this South Philadelphia tradition got off to a rocky start.

It began when Cacia's grandfather, also named Joe, started baking Thanksgiving turkeys with his brother Louis in the late 1950s.

The younger Joe was 13 and Louis was 11 when their dad, Sam, left the whole turkey day operation to them.

"I was taking them in the front, my brother was taking them in the back, and he marked the pan with a crayon. We put them in, the crayon melted, we didn't know who's turkey belonged to who," Cacia recalled.

Despite their inauspicious start, word of their perfectly baked Thanksgiving turkeys quickly spread.

"It just escalated every year until everyone in the neighborhood knew, and then everyone in the city knew, and now people from other states. I had one guy come from the Shore," Cacia said.

The folks from Cacia say their only regret is when they have to turn people away. Their ovens can accommodate 140 to 150 turkeys, which is simply not enough to meet the demand.

But their reward is a dozens of satisfied customers who walk away with a Thanksgiving bird to die for, along with some delicious bread and tomato pies.

"This is all we know on Thanksgiving, we work," Cacia said. "Everybody has fun Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving, but we know we have a responsibility."

They take that responsibility to heart.

"I'm very proud of that. We've been here 72 years. We must be doing something right," he added.