Southern California’s iconic Porto’s Bakery & Cafe launched its innovative Bake at Home product line back in October. The service is available through online ordering on the bakery’s newly redesigned website.
Beatriz Porto, Porto’s vice president of community relations, says that frozen products (their famous pastries, cookies and more) from Porto’s Bake at Home are shipped with baking instructions to customers across the country.
“The cool thing is when you bake it yourself, your whole house will smell like Porto’s,” she says. “These are all iconic family recipes from our bakery.” And the early response to the online product launch, Porto says, has been “incredible.”
At portosbakery.com, customers can watch videos online to follow Porto’s Chef Adrian Porto demonstrate each step through the Bake at Home instructions. Each Bake at Home product is stored on dry ice and typically shipped to customers in about two days. The five products currently available for online ordering are Refugiado guava and cheese pastries, cheese rolls, guava strudel, dulce de leche Besito cookies, and meat pies.
“Because they are frozen upon delivery, you can either bake them right out of the box or you can place the pastries in the freezer for another time,” says Luis Lluis, Porto’s director of e-commerce. “The baking process is pretty simple. It’s very similar to the chocolate chip cookies you get from the market. The only additional step we request is two pans — you stack one pan upon another to protect the pastries from burning on the bottom.”
Customers can order three options of box sizes: small, with two dozen pieces; medium, with three to four dozen; and large, five to six dozen. Prices range from a dozen meat pies for $16.99; 15 Besito cookies for $16.99; a dozen guava strudel for $16.99; a dozen cheese rolls for $16.99; and a dozen Refugiado guava and cheese strudel for $16.99. All unbaked pastries have a use-by date of approximately 30 days while kept in the freezer. All final orders require a two-order minimum.
Beatriz Porto says that Porto’s Bake at Home was a two-year project because they wanted to ensure every detail was tested. “We wanted to make sure the products would get to the customers the way we wanted, and that no product would be damaged. When they open the package, you want them to see our iconic Porto’s box. Anybody can order in any state nationwide, excluding Hawaii and Alaska.”
The frozen products are made and shipped out of Porto’s central test kitchen in Commerce, California.
Porto’s Bakery & Cafe operates locations in Burbank, Glendale, Downey, and Buena Park. A fifth store is coming soon in West Covina, California. The four cafes serve more than 6 million customers a year. They sell 1.5 million cheese rolls and 600,000 potato balls a month.
Porto’s operates locations in the California cities of Burbank, Glendale, Downey, and Buena Park. A fifth store is coming soon in West Covina, California. Rosa Porto opened the family bakery’s first storefront in 1976.
