NorCal’s Mega-Popular Starbread Filipino Bakery Opens in Chula Vista | Eater San Diego

"I watched customers line up early before the official opening of San Diego’s first Starbread Bakery in Chula Vista, eager to buy fresh-out-of-the-oven Spanish bread, also known as señorita bread, the specialty of the famous Filipino bakery chain based in Northern California. The bite-sized pastries are baked in small batches to ensure peak freshness and are enriched with melted butter and sugar; at Starbread the señorita bread is sold in multiples from bags of 5 pieces up to boxes of 60 and is a fixture at Filipino family gatherings and parties. Open daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., the shop also sells pandesal (Filipino rolls), cookies, cupcakes, croissants, and a variety of doughnuts that include Filipino-style bitso-bitso. Beyond the Spanish bread, its bestsellers are malasadas, the Portuguese fried-dough treat offered with tropical fillings like coconut, guava, mango, and pineapple. Area residents Paolo and Eleanor Seen and Jeff and Nikki Bangsal are overseeing Starbread’s San Diego expansion and plan to add coffee from a local roaster along with new items such as ube señorita bread and a savory version made with hot dogs, and they hope to open more stores in San Diego, possibly in Mira Mesa." - Candice Woo