Comadre Panadería
Bakery · Chestnut ·
Mexican American bakery reimagining pan dulce with unique flavors
Mexican American bakery reimagining pan dulce with unique flavors
"I find a surprising weekend-only breakfast taco at this bright pink East Austin bakery: Mariela Camacho (a 2025 Food & Wine Best New Chef) serves a simple bean, egg, and cheese (or bean and cheese for a vegan option) on her tender homemade flour tortillas — a recipe rooted in the pinto-bean techniques her mother taught her growing up in San Antonio." - Annie Brown Verdin
"Nostalgia runs deep at Comadre Panadería, Mariela Camacho’s Mexican American bakery in East Austin, where the pastry case is an ode to the pan dulce of her childhood reimagined with modern techniques and ethical sourcing. I find pillowy conchas topped with a crackly raspberry-chile shell, delicate heirloom corn–infused pink cakes crowned with Texas prickly pear buttercream and sprinkles, tender, crumbly mesquite pecan polvorones (vegan and gluten-free), airy sourdough focaccia drizzled with salsa macha, and showstopping viennoiserie like shatteringly crisp croissants stuffed with confit oyster mushrooms and her mother’s mole rojo; there are also glazed raspberry-guajillo masa cake doughnuts and a masa sugar cookie that balances toasted-marshmallow sweetness with a savory roasted-corn edge. I especially appreciate that the chocolate concha is studded with dark chocolate from Mexico City’s Chocolatería La Rifa and made with Texas-grown Sonora and Yecora Rojo whole-wheat flour, and that the bean-and-cheese empanada features pinto beans slow-cooked “like my mom makes them” and is served with her mother’s salsa. Camacho’s story—originally from Los Angeles, raised in a restaurant family, cutting her teeth in bakeries and restaurants before launching a pandemic-era pickup supported by a GoFundMe—shapes the bakery’s ethos: Comadre (a word that implies welcome and safety) is a space of resistance and reimagination where I see a deliberate commitment to heirloom grains, local organic ingredients, long fermentation, sustainability, and fair wages even if that means foregoing a glossy build-out; the result is food that feels warm and nostalgic while honoring nutritious, planet-friendly sourcing, and it draws a diverse crowd of families, grandmas, hipsters, and emo kids alike." - Raphael Brion
"We first fell in love with Comadre Panaderia when it opened as a weekend pop-up with online pre-orders that would always sell out. Now, instead of battling everybody with a working internet connection, all we have to do is walk through a bright yellow door in East Austin to find a tiny room filled with modern pan-Latinx baked goods. The menu changes from week to week, but there are usually a handful of vegan and gluten-free options, savory sourdough croissants, and corn-based cookies and donuts. Get a couple of heirloom masa sugar cookies—they’re sweet, crumbly, and almost buttery despite being vegan—then fill the rest of your box up with a few twice-baked conchas and corn flour alfajores." - nicolai mccrary
"We first fell in love with Comadre Panaderia in Austin when it opened as a weekend pop-up with online preorders that would always sell out. Now, instead of battling everybody with a working internet connection, all we have to do is walk through a bright yellow door in East Austin to find a tiny room filled with modern pan-Latinx baked goods. The menu changes weekly, but there are usually a handful of vegan and gluten-free options, savory sourdough croissants, and corn-based cookies and donuts. Get a couple of heirloom masa sugar cookies—they’re sweet, crumbly, and almost buttery despite being vegan—then fill the rest of your box with a few twice-baked conchas and corn flour alfajores." - anne cruz, team infatuation, jackie gutierrez jones 2, carina finn koeppicus, megan braden perry, julia chen 1, chelsea thomas, veda kilaru, ryan pfeffer, aimee rizzo, nikko duren, nicolai mccrary, candis mclean, juli horsford
"An Austin bakery reimagining Latinx baking with items such as pink Texas sheet cakes made from heirloom Texas corn flour and topped with prickly pear buttercream, exemplifying creative pan dulce and regional reinterpretation." - ByEmily Wilson
