The Biz Beat: San Jose Mexican bakery offers Oaxacan delights

Upon entering Dulcinea Panadería Oaxaqueña in San Jose, the intoxicating aroma alone should be enough to overwhelm your senses. But if it doesn’t, the dazzling display of more than 100 varieties of cookies, pastries, breads and cakes — almost all made fresh daily — certainly will.

It might be surprising to discover all of this goodness sprang from a food truck: El Ferente, launched by owner Monse Barrita in 2016. It’s a bit harder to imagine that her first idea for a new business, after closing a spa she owned, was to open a car dealership.

“When I was younger,” she told San José Spotlight, “I would help my mom cut cheese, cook tortillas and do this, do that. At the time, I was actually working for an equity compensation firm. But I think the food kept calling me back.”

For Barrita, this kind of change in direction is nothing new. The daughter of Marcelino Barrita, she began working at several of his businesses at age 8, helping with sales at his 3B Jewelry Store and dispensing the famous orange sauce at his La Victoria Taqueria.

“My dad had a lot of businesses,” she said. “But I grew up with my parents teaching me about the food of Oaxaca. When you grow up in a certain culture, you get comfortable with certain foods.”

Dulcinea’s offerings lean heavily on that cultural tradition. The cases are filled with items such as moyote, a water-based bread made with anise and molasses, crispy flatbread empanadas de regañada and casquito de turrón, a cookie filled with coconut and meringue.

The food truck, however, served standard Mexican fare like tacos, tortas and burritos and was a hit — for a hot moment. One year into its opening — the day after she hired her first employee — Barrita shut it down after someone crashed into it.

A move into catering was just as ill-fated: The pandemic hit as things were getting busy. With her books cleared of events, Barrita had little to do but clean her kitchen. As many did in the slow days of the shutdowns, and with the help of a Mexican chef, she learned to make bread.

And with that, she never really stopped. Dulcinea, which opened in 2021, is the result, with a daily production list that runs to five pages.

A first-time customer might feel a bewildered urge to try everything. There are the de rigueur items like croissants, donuts, cinnamon rolls and cookies, along with the more traditional Mexican items like the muffin-like mantecada and the pig-shaped, ginger-infused puerquitos.

But there are also specialties, like the huge, fluffy besos covered in powdered sugar, rolled brazo de reina with a white frosting sprinkled with coconut, coiled novias with a soft inner texture and a crispy sugar dome, bowtie-shaped guava chicharrones and piernas de pollo, folded over pastry with strawberry filling.

Dulcinea particularly showcases Latin American breads, such as the Oaxacan white bread, ojalgra, which Barrita grew up with, topped with caramelized sugar and sesame seeds that toast as the bread bakes. And the pan de yema is another popular choice, an egg-based bread with vanilla and cinnamon that is perfect for dipping.

Customer Karina Sabela comes for the empanadas, which come in a variety of flavors including pumpkin, guava, pineapple, calabaza and her favorite, the empanada de lechesilla, with a mildly sweet custard filling.

The sense of homeyness at Dulcinea, Sabela said, extends to the bakery itself.

“Even though we are in the middle of downtown San Jose, it is a very casual place,” she told San José Spotlight. “The ambience here is very calm and relaxing.”

There are reasons to visit Dulcinea that go beyond the sweets and breads. There are also breakfast and lunch items, like breakfast burritos and tortas, along with traditional Oaxacan chicken mole tamales, seasoned with more than 30 spices and herbs, which come wrapped in banana skins.

The must-try is the memelitas — thick, griddled tortillas made with rich masa bursting with sweet corn flavor, topped with husky black bean and pork rind paste and drizzled with a smoky chile morita sauce that has a tip-of-the-tongue heat.

“If I had to describe the taste,” Barrita said, “it’s very pre-Hispanic, like if the Mayans were still around and the ruins were there. You can taste it, taste the earth. There’s flavor in there, but it’s all fresh and it’s all natural.”

Of course, whether picking up a bag of assorted baked goods or indulging in breakfast or lunch, there needs to be something delectable to wash it down.

High on the list is the Café de Olla, made with coffee beans sourced from the Pluma Hidalgo region of Oaxaca, roasted over a wood fire to give it a soft, gentle flavor and then steeped in a large pot.

Barrita also imports an aromatic hot chocolate, made with Oaxacan cocoa beans and cinnamon for a slightly grainy texture and a coffee-flavored finish, with ground almonds mixed in to give it a nice head of foam.
For Barrita, much of the pleasure of owning Dulcinea comes from sharing her cultural roots and the things she delighted in as a child with the community.

“My dad would come home from Oaxaca,” she said, “and he would be bringing us the sweet treats. It just kind of hits home, transporting me back to my childhood memories. I think we’re very well received by the community because we’ve got that heart.”

Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].

Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].