This story comes from NPR’s Next Generation Radio project:
It’s common to see a line snake out the door of a little bakery just outside Arlington, Texas. The minimal space’s white walls are punctuated with bright pink and brown paintings of whisks, bread and pastries. A line of Mexican ceramics leads customers to a display case packed to the brim with inviting treats.
This is PanPan Bakery and Cafe, owned by 21-year-old baker and entrepreneur Laura Molinar, whose parents were born in Chihuahua, Mexico.
“I did not see PanPan having the reach that it does,” said Molinar, who opened this storefront just over a year ago.
PanPan’s eclectic decor and mix of Mexican-Japanese fusion — with a menu including milk bread concha, mango sticky rice and horchata matcha — led to an explosion of support on social media early on.
To Molinar, the success of PanPan is the culmination of a journey that began as a teenager when she first started baking. Since 15, she’s worked to perfect a combination of her family’s own Mexican food traditions and the Japanese culture she embraced growing up — recalling fond memories like watching the Dragon Ball Z series with her father as a child.
