This Salt Lake City bakery provides the bread of life — Mexican style

As a child, Concepción Flores saw bread being made.

Her father, Dimas Camarillo, was a baker in Tehuacan, Mexico. And like most bakers in Mexico, he started his workday so early in the morning that some would consider him late at night. The goal: to have fresh, warm bread ready for customers at 6 a.m.

Although their two-location business, Panadería Flores, is not in Mexico but on the west side of Salt Lake City and does not offer hot bread for early risers, Flores and her team work hard to provide an authentic experience that is similar to the real thing on Mexican streets. The displays around the Rose Park Shop show around 50 types of bread, pastries and cakes.

The aroma of vanilla, sugar and the toasted crust of their bolillos – a soft, hearty Mexican bread – permeate the room. In a typical after-work rush, every word is in Spanish and the door doesn’t stop opening and closing as more and more regulars get paper bags of freshly baked goods.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Panadería Flores employee Lucrecia Garcia brings baked goods from the shelves for a customer, 11/24/2021. Panadería Flores, a Mexican bakery in Rose Park, also supplies an international community with fresh bread every day in the form of bolillos, conchas and biscuits, November 23, 2021.

“Many people in Mexico eat warm bread in the morning and warm and fresh bread in the afternoon,” she said. “You will not eat morning bread in the afternoon.”

In addition to bolillos, conchas – a sweet bread with a biscuit tip in the shape of a shell – are the best sellers in the bakery.

Some Utahners, mostly of Hispanic origin, imitate this tradition and visit the Panadería Flores daily. At home they dip bread in hot chocolate or coffee or fill it with beans, meat or vegetables.

Flores rarely takes a day off, spending most of the time between 10 am and 9:30 pm baking and serving bread.

Baking was already an integral part of her life when she met her husband Santiago, who is also the son of Mexican bakers. When the couple moved to Utah, opening a bakery was an obvious decision.

“We have it in our roots,” she said.

“We Mexicans cannot live without bread and coffee,” says Silvina Martínez, a customer. “I eat bolillos in the morning or I keep them to make tortas – a Mexican sandwich.”

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Panadería Flores, a Mexican bakery in Rose Park, serves fresh bread, bolillos, conchas and biscuits to an international community every day, November 23, 2021.

Born in Mexico City, Martínez discovered the bakery more than 10 years ago and visits it at least once a week.

“The bread is very good and soft and is made every day,” she said. “It tastes like Mexico.”

A business like this bakery is not only a meeting place for immigrants looking for a home, but also enables children to connect with their culture.

Angelica Malmaceda, a second-generation American born in Utah, waited patiently in line at the bakery to pick up some bolillos.

“All of my family are enjoying it,” she said. “We eat them all the time, with beans or chorizo.”

Mexico’s love of bread dates back to the mid-15th century when a viceroy dipped bread in hot chocolate in front of a crowd, reports the food website Eater. Then, in the 17th century, French immigrants opened bakeries and popularized “French bread” across the country. This bread, which resembles a short baguette, achieved tortilla popularity.

Some areas in Mexico and other Latin American countries know the bolillo as French bread, Spanish bread, or water bread.

The Rose Park bakery produces around 600 bolillos every day. This is the type of piece that draws most customers from different countries including Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, and Guatemala, Flores said.

“We have customers who only come for the bolillo,” she said. “They often come from far away places like Idaho, Wyoming or Tooele.”

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Panadería Flores, a Mexican bakery in Rose Park, serves fresh bread, bolillos, conchas and biscuits to an international community every day, November 23, 2021.

Since opening their first bakery at 904 S. 900 West in 2003, the Flores have developed their own way of making Mexican bread and adapting to the Utah market. In 2005 they expanded to a larger, second location at 1625 W. 700 North in Rose Park.

Despite Mexican traditions, they let their bread cool before selling it.

“My family and I like to eat the bread when it has cooled down,” she says. “The real flavors are then emphasized.”

Just like any store visited by various communities in search of authenticity, they sometimes face criticism. But Flores doesn’t expect any major changes to their recipe just yet.

“Some people say we should make bread the way people do it in their countries or in their cities,” she said, “but then it would no longer be our style.”

Alixel Cabrera is a member of the Report for America Corps and writes for The Salt Lake Tribune on the status of the communities on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley. Your donation, which equates to our RFA grant, will help her keep writing stories like this one; Please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.

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