A Beloved Mission Bakery Shuts its Doors
Saying goodbye is never easy especially when it means bidding adios to a neighborhood icon.
La Victoria Bakery has served the people of the Mission for over 50 years and last week it closed its doors for good. The thought of missing out on one last sugary bun was enough to send my sweet tooth into overdrive. So, on the last day of operation, I dropped everything and rushed over to their 24th Street location. As I put the pedal to the metal, I repeated to myself, “Please be open. Please be open.” Luckily, they were.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed the well worn La Victoria sign was still hanging proud above the historic store front. As I swung the glass door open, I was greeted by the sweet smell of just out of the oven pan dulce floating through the small panaderia and the sounds of easy listening tunes. Right then and there, it hit me. In this moment, I belonged nowhere but here among the almost bare walls, picked over pastries, and sullen faces. We were all in our feelings. Surprisingly, I was more sentimental than I thought I would be. After all, who gets sad over freakin’ bread?! But this place was special. It was more than just a place to indulge a midday sugar fix. This corner shop in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District was where we came to celebrate and to mourn in community.
I can still remember the first time I walked into La Victoria many years ago. I was on my way to Garfield Park to view the hauntingly beautiful Dia de los Muertos altars. I was a recent transplant from Los Angeles trying to find my way in the city and not doing a very good job even questioning why I was in San Francisco to begin with. La Victoria would ease my mind, with its vibrant colors and decadent pasteles or as my Argentinian father would say facturas! In any case, it felt like home. On that occasion, I’d grab a pastry to go and dash out to the nearby festivities that awaited but promised myself I would be back. And I did return. Time and time again after special events like my daughter’s baptism and on super ordinary days when I just needed a bit of comfort. La Victoria was always there.
Founder Gabriel Maldonado opened La Victoria in 1951 becoming one of the first Latino businesses in the Mission to serve classic Mexican pastries. In the years since, the bakery saw its fair share of ups and downs. A changing neighborhood, a building fire, and family disagreements over the future of the shop are what ultimately led to its closure. And to one less Latino business in the Mission.
Regardless of its history, no one can deny the indelible mark this small bakery had on a community that’s often overlooked but never down for long.
On La Victoria’s last day, my kids and I sat on the coveted barstools overlooking the pastry cases, dangling plastic fruit and eating sweet bread to our hearts delight when suddenly my son turned to me and asked,
“Mom, where will we go to now for Día de los Muertos?”
And with certainty, I replied “We’ll have to start a new tradition. Help me think of some places..”
