Porto’s Bakery Ready To Open

We took part in a pre-opening training event at Porto’s Bakery in Downey this weekend. There is an album of pictures up on our facebook page.

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Porto’s Bakery Pre-Opening Event

The significance of Porto’s to the Downey arts scene is yet to be fully scene, but the potential is huge. This is a major, well-liked Southern California business that has taken a big step to make a home in what the city wants to recapture as a vibrant downtown scene. They worked extremely hard to design their building in Mid-Century style architecture, which is a hallmark of Downey’s roots and matches the style of many of our landmarks. The effect is stunning. Raul Porto will tell you that he was about to plug-and-play the same spanish style architecture of their building in Glendale, but then was convinced by the city to change his plans. He wasted about $150,000 going down the “easy” road, until he committed to mid-century and really worked at making his Downey location unique.

Hopefully more businesses will take notice of the quality of the new Porto’s location and will see how instantly successful it no doubt will be. BJ’s discovered how strong the Downey market is, and a central hub for many people in the area. The opening of the BJ’s in Downey was the biggest opening ever in the history of the company. At the same time, I hope they take notice of the care that Porto’s put into their architecture and design. In addition to a huge spacious restaurant, there is a fairly large outdoor area on the side that I hope can become an evening hang out, perhaps with music and art.

The Porto family has already become a mainstay here in the community. They’ve had a very busy booth at the Downey Farmer’s Market ever since their new Downey location was announced last year. You can see Betty Porto out there pretty much every week.

Welcome, Porto family, to Downey.