A new bakery is giving Mission Gorge Road a reason to wake up early. Mi Pan Artisan Bakery, run by husband-and-wife team Alejandro Gomez and Alejandra Ruelas, has opened its first brick-and-mortar shop at 6435 Mission Gorge Road in the Grantville neighborhood of Central San Diego, with a grand opening celebration held October 7.
The couple’s story is a classic San Diego small-business arc. Gomez, a native of Mexico, lost his job during the 2020 pandemic and spent that unplanned downtime teaching himself to bake. What began as sourdough loaves and banana bread out of a home kitchen grew into a following at farmers markets in Little Italy and Chula Vista, where Ruelas says the bakery will keep selling even now that they have a storefront of their own.
Gomez’s style leans heavily on traditional French technique, and the new shop’s case shows it: a frangipane-filled almond croissant, a sourdough cookie called “Las Cukies” loaded with three kinds of chocolate, walnuts, peanuts, almonds and Maldon sea salt, and a carefully practiced canelé, the rum- and vanilla-scented pastry that originated in Bordeaux. The menu will keep moving with the seasons, with Pan de Muerto arriving in late October ahead of Dia de los Muertos, panettone appearing for the holidays, and an Oaxacan mole sourdough and an Argentine medialuna in the works for future rotations. Coffee comes from two local roasters, with a guava-pineapple-lychee drip blend called "Bombon" and a chocolate-forward espresso called "Matriarch" rounding out the counter.
For Gomez and Ruelas, the move out of a garage and home kitchen into a commercial space is about more than square footage. With proper equipment, daily bread production now takes roughly half the time it used to, which Ruelas says translates into a couple of extra hours of sleep for her husband most nights, a small but meaningful win after years of baking around the clock to keep up with demand.
Mi Pan Artisan Bakery is open daily from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. or until the day’s pastries sell out, a reminder to Grantville and Mission Gorge regulars that the early bird gets the croissant. More details are available at mipanbakery.com.
Small, owner-operated shops like this one are the backbone of Central San Diego’s neighborhood commercial strips. Are you a local business owner? Add your business listing on San Diego Business Web today.
Source: Times of San Diego
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