This SF Bakery Has Anchored the Mission’s Latino Group for 30 Years

5 months ago 2 min read

After retiring from the Financial institution of America on the age of 39, Doña Carmen Elias determined to embark upon a brand new and completely completely different enterprise: opening a bakery in San Francisco.

At present, La Mejor Bakery is flourishing after 30 years in enterprise—and the panaderia simply acquired official legacy standing from San Francisco.

Legacy standing, which gives perks like inclusion in metropolis publicity campaigns and entry to grants, honors the contributions of long-standing companies and helps to make sure their continued survival. It is the primary program of its sort within the nation and one which has served as a mannequin for different cities.

La Mejor Bakery is each an anchor and a sanctuary within the Mission, performing as a group base for its Latino clientele who usually don’t produce other household within the U.S., in accordance with the enterprise’s legacy software.

“It was my dad’s favourite bakery,” stated Mission resident Maria Cordova. “He would go there each morning to get his bread and low.”

La Mejor Bakery | Julie Zigoris/The Customary

Elias was raised on the candy scent of pan dulce, serving to to maintain young children when she was younger herself in numerous well-known bakeries all through town—like close by La Reyna Bakery and Dianda’s Italian American Pastry Co.—the place her father labored. Their household moved from Mexico Metropolis to San Francisco within the late Nineteen Sixties, when Elias was a toddler.

Her father had died by the point she opened La Mejor, however she borrowed the knowledge and recipes of his buddies who labored alongside him within the enterprise of creating postres. The bakery is called after one in Tijuana the place Elias’s father and his buddies used to collect.

The panaderia hires from the local people and is among the largest contributors of pan dulce to the numerous occasions alongside the twenty fourth Avenue hall.

With its cheerful painted home windows that change in accordance with the vacations, La Mejor is a colourful and sweet-smelling oasis. The cash-only enterprise serves scrumptious pastries and cookies in addition to tamales.

However it’s maybe greatest identified for its light-as-air conchas, which are available in a number of flavors. For those who haven’t been to La Mejor, now’s the time—it’s merely the perfect.

Since January, San Francisco’s Small Enterprise Fee has unanimously authorised 23 companies for the Legacy Enterprise Registry, together with Swensen’s and Mr. Bing’s Cocktail Lounge. A complete of 365 companies have been added to the registry, which started in 2015.