Gloria's Bakery

Merely just a few minutes away in a tiny strip mall anchored by a 7-11 is another Mexican bakery...

listed only as "Bakery" on the sign...

Gloria's, a small family owned panaderia just a hop, skip and a jump away from nearby Northgate Market (which used to be El Tigre and before that, Safeway back in the 80's)....

It's near a bridge on which the San Diego trolley trundles past every half hour or so. Gloria's Bakery is one of those places on Coronado St. that I've passed by many times and wondered about but never visited until yesterday. I guess you could say my current obession are local panaderias. I am just so fascinated with all of the different types of pan dulces. Each bakery is different so it was like a mission to go check it out.

We struck out with pan de muerto at Gonzalez Panaderia.

We weren't sure if we'd find it here either.

As soon as you walk in, you are greet with the scents of freshly baked bread and sweets filling the air...

It was like visual overload in here compared to the nearly barren Gonzalez bakery.  Every tray and rack in this place held so many different kinds of baked goods I hadn't seen before.

Like at the other bakeries, you grab a tray and a pair of tongs and make your selections.

It's hard to leave with only one thing.

Although I don't really like the conchas too much, I do like how they decorate the tops of those pan dulces with sugar and make designs on them. Very pretty.

Ooh, filled empanadas.  I saw that they had piloncillo (raw brown sugar) at the bottom so we got one of those.

Now Cathy if you're reading this, you have to go here for these. I thought of you when I saw this hot case filled with stuffed bolillos. Look at the different kinds they have - chorizo and beans, machaca (one of their more popular offerings), jalapeno and beans, and so on...


Our tray of four pastries came out to $4.25, a little over a dollar each.

Next to the cashier counter, Coricos cookies (ring shaped and made with corn flour) made in-house.

The strip mall is right next to the Coronado St. exit from the 5 (coming from the south side if you go up the 905). If you go 5 South to Coronado, you would need to make a left. But, you could also make a right on Hollister and check out Gonzalez Panaderia first.

Our pastries once again...and as you can see, no pan de muerto. Sigh. Oh well, at least I've already tried three different versions).

Bert picked this out - it felt quite heavy and was a bit on the dry side. It has some thick glaze on it too.

I'm sure he'll be having that later this week in the morning. I didn't really like this one. Too dry and tasteless.

TC always likes these, the Cono de Nieve ("ice cream cone" filled with Bavarian cream)

Now, this was a pastry I hadn't seen before. Bert actually picked it out because he thought I might like it. I looked it up online and saw that this is called cuello de azucar ("collar of sugar"). There is also another version called cuello de miel (with 'honey') but we only saw the sugar version at Gloria's.

It was flaky but not like puff pastry. The flakes were thicker and more bready. This ringed pastry wasn't too sweet either but I liked it.

This was the empanada de piloncillo which I thought might be similar to the circular coyota de piloncillo from Moreliana. This was triangular shaped and dusted with sugar.

When broken apart, you could see the thick crust. Upon closer inspection, you can also see the unbroken lumps of the piloncillo.

The version from Moreliana had melted piloncillo inside, so the filling was smooth. The last piece I got had the piloncillo bubbling out of the top, leaving a dark brown glaze in some parts.

As for the filling of this empanada, it was not smooth at all.  The sugar was not crushed down so when I bit into this, I got lumps of the sugar in my mouth.

It's not that bad for the first bite, but having the whole thing like that would give me sugar overload. I'm not sure if this is common, to have the sugar filling not completely broken down or what. I'll have to ask my Mexican friends unless someone out there familiar with this can enlighten me. I much prefer the smoother version from Moreliana.

Gloria's Bakery
2511 Coronado Ave
San Diego, CA 92154
(619) 424-3091

There is no website.

Like Gonzalez Panaderia, there are only a few online reviews. Maybe that's a good thing, keeping our little secrets to ourselves before it's publicized and overrun by the dreaded hipsters, ha ha.

Now I need to explore the panaderias in San Ysidro and National City and my Mexican bakery tour of the South Bay will be complete (insert evil laughter here)...