Christine M
From Mexico to Milwaukee, the Torres family has made their dream come true: a family bakery. The recipes, passed down over three generations, became the bedrock of the family’s new business, Torres Bakery, 4759 S. Packard Ave., Cudahy.
In 2013, they purchased the building south of Leighton Street in Cudahy. It was a dream renovation and building, and they eventually opened their bakery and café in April.
Mario Torres and his wife Sofia Salvat run the day-to-day business they run with Torres’ parents dealing with baking and cooking. Salvat brings her experience as a manager and barista, along with her Colombian and Puerto Rican roots.
Traditional Mexican bread and desserts are made in-house daily, including pan dolce, conchas, and churros. They also make sweet pies, cakes, pies, cheesecake and pastries. Panini is served on homemade bread, with popular options by far including chipotle chicken, cubano, and melted tuna. Valentine’s Day coffee is served daily, and the menu includes cold brew, latte, frappe and smoothies, as well as aguas fresco for summer.
The current hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For updates, go to facebook.com/theetorresbakery.
The beginnings of the bakery
Mario: Bread has been passed down from generations. My grandfather was working in Mexico. I passed it on to my father. Because of the crime, my parents decided to sell and travel here. It took some time. At first we were in Los Angeles. Then we came here.
My father was working and saving his money so we could open this bakery. We bought the building. It used to be a TV repair shop. We had to update and change a lot. My father is a third-generation baker.
We are from Morelos, an hour from Mexico City.
their specialties
Sophia: Makes traditional Mexican bread. Pan dulce specifically, sweet pans (bread) with flaking sugar are his specialty. You can compare it to El Rey and you will taste the difference. It is softer and more moist, you can taste the cinnamon. It’s handcrafted, not just machines. He spends hours on pastries.
Mario: It is his passion. I didn’t hear him complain once.
Communication with clients
Sophia: We definitely want to offer something familiar.
Mario: The majority of our customers are not Mexican, so we try to offer a variety.
Sophia: We try to appeal to the customer. Some people don’t know what an empanada is by looking at it, but people love them. Especially kids. Mexican bread is denser, too.
Mario: Usually with coffee on the side.
Sophia: It is not served on its own, it is served with coffee, hot chocolate or milk. If you don’t know it, you think it’s too dry. There is some culture clash.
Mario: This is also why we have other options like cakes. Our panini is home made. My dad makes bread for it. It’s fresh every day and sets us apart, as are aguas frescas with fresh fruit.
Sophia: We try to be ingenious. We’re a new company, and we’re learning what people want here, but we’re getting there.
Mario: We are as local as we can be, that’s our goal. Our coffee valentine’s day.
Sophia: We sat down with three different coffee roasters and tried to discover the best ones. We knew that when it came to coffee, people would come if it was good. We care about quality.
Regional recipes
Sophia: You will see different flavors in food in different regions (Mexico). As with our pies, it’s strawberry or pineapple compared to some places that use peaches and cherries for fillings, or guava or pumpkin. Everything is regional.
Some people will come and ask if we have sweet potatoes. Just because we’re a Mexican bakery doesn’t mean we have sweet potatoes.
Mario: This is regional. Never heard of it, we tried it.
Sophia: Now we make empanadas with calabaza and pumpkin. All pumpkin spices are popular, so why not?
I look ahead
Sophia: We’d like to do more Mexican food, but that’s in the background. We’re considering adding tamales or tacos, but we already have Luna’s and Lalas here (in Cudahy). We hear that there is still a desire in this community for more. We are trying to find out what this is.
Mario: Mom’s tamales are dense, really saturate. We make our own tortillas. My mom is cooking. My father does bread.
Craving comfort food
Sophia: I feel like I eat a concha sandwich almost every day. His dad makes it fresh out of the oven, so good.
Mario: It literally collapses in your mouth.
Sophia: And he really loves to make it. He puts a lot of love and affection into it.
Favorite dessert
Mario: I love churros.
Sophia: We make it every day, several times a day. We have Bavarian stuffed with strawberry or plain filling now.
Skip the lard
Sophia: People should know that our bakery is vegan. Mexican bakery is usually made with lard. Not everyone can eat lard. We use vegetable shortening (shortening) made from soybeans. It is completely vegetarian. There is no pork fat in our bakery.
Mario: This comes straight from our Mexico area.
Milwaukee must
Mario: We do hot ham and rolls on Sundays.
Sophia: The rolls are baked fresh that day, made by us. We are planning to upgrade the ham game. We didn’t know anything about ham and rolls and how hard people got into it.
What keeps them going?
Mario: My father is my inspiration. They were retired. They used all their savings for this. They don’t have to do this, but something in them makes them here for it. This inspires us to come here every day.
Sophia: His father works hard, and he can’t help but inspire you.
Mario: He has scales. It’s old school, in milligrams. He has really old books in Spanish with recipes. I got him new notebooks, because his old books were falling apart at the seams. He has been keeping notes for more than 30 years. Some of these are my grandfather’s recipes. I have never met my grandfather.
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