This was a pleasant surprise. I stumbled across this place online fairly recently, and quickly realized it wasn't really a consumer-facing business. If you go to their social media pages, it's a wholesaler for baklava so I imagine their primary clientele is supermarkets, local groceries, etc. It was a little tough to figure out how to approach this without an official website, but I live nearby and figured yesterday morning it was worth a shot to visit - worst case, I left without baklava. Thankfully that's not what happened.
I'm not familiar with this area of Clifton at all, beyond zooming through on 46. I didn't even know there was basically a Main Street/downtown area, but I located it easily, along with a nearby free public parking lot (Montclair could take some pointers about that) with plenty of spaces. From there it was a short walk from the other side of the lot to Golden Baklava, which at the very least DID have some signage on both sides of the building, along with an "Open" sign and a door literally open. I took my shot.
Definitely not designed with the public in mind - it's basically just a barebones office with an adjoining bakery; no cash register or anything like that. There was a guy in the back with an apron on who greeted me within a few seconds of entry, and when I asked if they had any baklava I could just buy right then and there, he laughed and pointed to literally trays upon trays of baklava in racks nearby.
I had a few options of varying sizes, but I opted for a 12-pack, which cost $15. Honestly pretty delicious. I accidentally ate them all within roughly an hour or two, and I had my first one in the parking lot. It was fresh and still warm. The only downside to that (and this is on me) is that it came apart pretty easily, which I imagine is not the case if I'd had a bit more patience here. And as with baklava in general, it's pretty sticky from the honey, so maybe not the best idea to eat that before driving back home. I felt a little Winnie the Pooh-ish.
Worth rolling the dice if you're nearby to see if they're open and the baklava available for purchase. My recommendation for them is to make this business a little more accessible to the average consumer (though I'm sure their business model is what it is for a reason). But I don't think it would be terribly difficult to, say, set up a website and have some public limited hours on the weekends - let the people know you're here! read more