I remember waking up in the early hours to go in to the bakery with my dad, sitting on bags of flour while he experimented with different flavors, and my mom serving each customer like they were an old friend.
That was our family’s bakery in Hollywood, California. My grandparents, Victor and Milagros Valerio, had opened the first one in National City in 1979 — my grandmother worked out the recipes by hand, and my grandfather opened the doors.
Eric and I looked at Colorado Springs and realized this story had never been told here. Filipino families all along the Front Range were driving for their bread, making it themselves, or doing without. People who had never tried it had no door to walk through.
So we built one. We chose Briargate on purpose — right between Wolf Ranch and Cordera. We brought our family’s name, our grandfather’s recipes, and a stubborn belief that a community grows around a table with good food on it.
“We are pioneers at heart — builders who create new things, including a food culture that has never had a home on Colorado’s Front Range until now.”
Our family's pandesal recipe is famous among generations of bakery customers. Three generations of our family have made that bread. Now, we are so proud to make it for you right here in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
My family! From left to right: Robert Rigonan Sr, Yolanda Valerio Rigonan, Sonia Cabrera (behind in green shirt), Jesus Cabrera (red hat), Milagros Valerio (front), Angie Valerio, Victor Mark Valerio (in front of Angie Valerio), Victor Valerio III, Me (Janel Yandura), Victor Valerio Jr., Maria Luisa Valerio, Jennilou Valerio.
I (Janel) grew up in this. I know what the dough should feel like, what my grandmother would say about a batch, and how my mother made a stranger feel like a regular in about four seconds. That is the part I am responsible for here — that what we hand you is right, and that it still means what it meant in her kitchen.
Eric is the reason it runs. He is here every day, he knows where everything is and why, and he cares about the parts nobody notices until they go wrong. If something is not right, he would rather you told him than told the internet. That is not a policy — it is just how he is.
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