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Panaderos rise early to bring tasty treats to their customers

Published 7/11/2009 in Features

By RACHAEL GRAY

rgray@gctelegram.com

Sammy Mendoza gathers enough bread and pastries to fill three trays. It's 6:30 a.m. Thursday, and he's right on schedule. Mendoza stops by Panadería Real most mornings to pick up treats.

"I give them to the cowboys," he said.

Mendoza is a farrier and a cowboy himself. He was on his way to a Leoti feedlot Thursday morning dressed in jeans, boots and a short-sleeved plaid shirt. He said he shares the bread and pastries during feedlot breaks.

"This is my favorite bakery," he said.

"¿No te ayuda?" He calls to Sandra Serrano, who is baking and shelving near the hot oils and ovens in the back. "He doesn't help you?"

Mendoza is talking about Sandra's brother, Geraldo Serrano, who is working the counter up front, a breezier place in the bakery.

Mendoza nods a familiar thanks to panadero Geraldo, picks up his bags and heads on his way.

Geraldo and Sandra start baking at Panadería Real, 107 N. Jennie Barker Road, at 4 a.m. every day. They like to get done by 7 a.m. in case the tortilla makers need help. In addition to baked goods, Real offers tortillas, meats, cheeses, canned goods, spices, soda and some produce.

The early hours also cater to the rush, Geraldo said. The workers from the packing plants end their late shifts around that time. They like to swing by for a treat or to get some pastries for their families, he said.

Orlando Parra, a feedlot cowboy, comes into Real most days. On Thursday, he bought warm bread and a block of white cheese to accompany breakfast. He also picked out a few pastries for "la familia," he said.

Such is the scene in the panaderías in Garden City. The sweet smells that waft out of the bakeries around town are created by early-rising, hard-working, mostly Spanish-speaking families.

The Serrano family members who run Real have been in the business since 1994. Geraldo's brother, Ramiro, owns the bakery. It may not be Geraldo's first choice of work, but he said it's more pleasant, for him, than working in the meatpacking plants.

Real used to have a professional baker, but he left several years ago. Geraldo said he had never been in a kitchen before, but he learned to bake from watching the professional.

"It was something I had to learn, I wasn't trained," he said.

Geraldo heads to the back to roll out some more dough for the pumpkin empanadas he's making. He's already made several trays of piña (pineapple) and crema de banano (banana cream) empanadas. He gets a quarter of a tray done before he heads back to the register to sell a man some bread.

"That man takes the bread to the plant and puts it in the cafeteria. They order from us," Geraldo said.

A few more customers come in and choose their morning pastries. Most of them choose a variety, and the "concha" pastry seems to be selling well.

"That's a favorite here," Geraldo said. "It's really popular."

On Fulton Street, another family rises early to keep up with the concha and pastry demand.

Mauricio Ojeda, the owner of PanaderÃía Rosita, said the "concha" is their most popular pastry, too. The puffy, lightly-frosted sweet bread seems to fly off of their shelves, he said.

The Ojeda family also has been baking since 4 a.m. Thursday.

Unlike Serrano, Ojeda has grown up in the baking business. He comes from six generations of bakers before him. Baking is a perfected science for the Ojeda family.

Back in Morelia, Mexico, when Ojeda was younger, he was always around the baking business.

Ojeda knows the key ingredients to running a successful bakery. You must have a good dueño (owner,) quality ingredientes (ingredients) and a talented panadero (baker), he said.

"Tengo las tres aqui, (We have those three here.)" he said.

Ojeda has lived in Garden City for seven years, after having lived in Nebraska and Colorado.

"Somebody told me I should come here," he said in Spanish. "Garden City. Sounds like a beautiful place."

Ojeda said when he got here he expected more flowers. He laughed and said, "But I like it."

A few customers come into Rosalita to pick out some sweets. It's still breakfast time, and Ojeda said the bakery hasn't been too busy this morning.

Ojeda said business always slows in the summer months. People eat fewer pastries in warm weather, he said. The Ojeda family just offers bread and pastries at their panadería. Most customers head around the corner to El Remedio, 1005 E. Fulton St., a Mexican market for other goods such as salsa, spices and tortillas.

Still, he said, most of the baked goods in the panadería will sell by 2:30 p.m. He said he would leave for the day shortly after that.

At Panadería Alexis, 146 W. Stevens Ave., Marisela Rentería will stay later into the afternoon. But she doesn't open the bakery as early as Ojeda or Serrano. Rentería arrives at 7 a.m., alone, to begin baking, uncovering and restocking the shelves. She makes sure Alexis is plenty stocked with other goods, too. Rentería sells tortillas, eggs, soda, milk, dried peppers, hominy, pork rinds and other south-of-the-border condiments that can spice up any American meal.

Renterí­a and her husband have been in Garden City for 20 years. Her husband, José, is also a panadero who bakes and works in the shop.

Alexis' prime location caters to a variety of customers. Rentería said her customers are blancos, latinos y otros (white, Latino and others). The labels of her pastries are in Spanish, but Rentería probably can translate them into English. If things get too complicated or a non-Spanish speaking customer needs the name of an exact ingredient, one of Renterí­a's five English-speaking children is just a phone call away.

Tuesday morning, Renterí­a busied herself restocking shelves. She had a fresh batch of conchas she used to fill her display case.

"It's popular," she said in Spanish. She pointed to a refrigerated case full of cake layered with cream frosting, chocolate and strawberry filling. "But people come here for the tres leches."

The panaderías give a glimpse of traditional Hispanic life and way of business. While life is different for them in their new city, the panaderos provide something sweet and familiar for Hispanic residents while enticing others to come through their doors.

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