The Dominguez Bakery closed in 2014
Every week at 4 am, while most of the residents of 24th Street doze, two young people at the Domínguez Bakery are setting the ovens to start baking fresh bread of the day. Piles of dough are waiting to be kneaded, the sweet fragrance of sugar and butter fill the place as well as the sound of Mexican music played in the background.
As the furnace heats up, 29-year-old Jesse Quiles and 22-year-old Alex Hurtado begin a ritual dating back decades when his great-grandparents Concepción and Sebastián Domínguez left their home in Jalisco, Mexico. year of 1953 to come to the United States.
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Taking into account their history and heritage, they try to make bread in the same way their great-grandmother did. “It’s old,” said Alex Hurtado. “I feel as if I travel in time when I bake. We could have machines that did it (the bread), but it would take away the human element. ”
Although the Mission has undergone changes and has attracted new people, the Dominguez Bakery has remained. They have taken the time to explain the crumbs of the trade to those who are new to the neighborhood and thus, Rosa Hurtado, Jesse’s mother, keeps things in perspective. “At the time of my grandparents, the Mission was an Italian and Irish community, and then Mexican businesses arrived. Now there are new people in the neighborhood. ”
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Hurtado’s grandparents started on the Excelsior in 1960, and then moved to the Mission in 1965 when the owners of the current building, which was the original location of the La Victoria bakery across the street, tried to sell. Concepción Domínguez decided to act and bought it. At first, Domínguez was a place where you could buy cilantro, cheese, bags and of course Mexican sweet bread.
Although they stopped selling various items years ago, the bakery continues to thrive. I remember leaving the Church of San Pedro when I was a child in the 90’s and observing families going to La Victoria or the Dominguez Bakery. Until today, this is the case. My family always chose the Dominguez Bakery, but the two locals have their supporters and there is no rivalry. “When La Victoria runs out of flour, we give it what they need,” Hurtado said, adding that both have their own customer base.
In his 45 years of business, Dominguez has not done any advertising and his business has been built through the experience of customers. On a recent Tuesday morning, dozens of clients attended as well as they have done in many cases over the course of 20 years.
David Salas, long-time resident, ex-alcoholic and indigent self-proclaimed, felt the support of the Dominguez family during difficult times. “Everyone in the Dominguez Bakery welcomed me with open arms, they did not judge me and they supported me even when I begged and stole,” he said. “They accepted me, which makes the bread taste much better because it comes from their hands.”
There is still talk of Concepción Domínguez, who died almost 30 years ago. Her grandmother, Rosa Hurtado, remembers her as someone “who interacted with the other merchants on 24th Street, donated bread to schools and churches and gave credit to everyone even when he kept a record of everyone who owed money.”
Hurtado, who has a nice smile, now plays a similar role. Jesse Quiles, her son, and Alex Hurtado, her nephew, describe her as a local celebrity who is often stopped in the street to talk.Carmen Dominguez, the mother of Hurtado, served as the chief baker until she retired in December 2009. She is now the matriarch of the family and spent the last two to three years training her grandchildren, Quiles and Hurtado, to learn the recipe of the family. Both have taken the baton in their hands and have studied bakery in a formal way to complement the training of their grandmother. “It’s natural to work here. We used to play hide and seek and play with flour. We have been helping since we were kids, “Quiles said.
The business is a little slow in this time when the economy is difficult, but both Hurtado and Quiles have ambitious plans to spread the word and expand their work through Facebook and Twitter: they have created the largest shell in the world, a type of Mexican sweet bread shaped like a seashell.
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