Porto's expanding in new era.

Generations Award

Porto's Bakery & Cafe

Glendale and Burbank

Ask any of the three siblings who now run Porto's Bakery & Cafe when they first became involved in the business, and they will answer in much the same way: "We were always involved."

Born in Cuba, they migrated with their parents when Beatriz Porto was 17, Raul Porto Jr. was 14 and Margarita Navarro was 12. Their parents, Rosa and Raul Porto Sr., were struggling with the fledgling business and there was no money for a babysitter.

"After school and on weekends, we spent most of the time in the bakery." said Raul Porto Jr. "I don't know how much morn forced on us, and how much we took upon ourselves."

The tightly knit family has stayed that way. with the three siblings carving out a role best suited to their skills and interests. But the business has changed considerably. From a single small location, first in Los Angeles and then in Glendale, Porto's has expanded its original bakery three times over. About five years ago, the company opened a manufacturing facility in Irwindale where much of the large equipment used to make its confections is housed. Sometime later a full-fledged cafe was added to the bakery, and in January, a second location opened in Burbank.

"We grew very slowly until four years ago, and then we really started growing very fast," said Raul Porto Jr., who handles much of the business side.

Porto's now offers about 180 different items--everything from the cheese rolls and potato balls that come from Rosa Porto's original Cuban recipes--to sandwiches, soups and 15 different kinds of breads and a huge selection of pastries.

Navarro, who studied cake decorating at her mother's side from the time she was in grade school, oversees a special order business of wedding, communion, birthday and other occasion cakes that are still a large part of the Porto's offerings.

Cuban cornerstone

Although the restaurant and bakery now appeal to a broad cross section of people and tastes, the original Cuban flair that Porto's was founded

upon is still the cornerstone of the business.

"When we came, it was only the things my mother made in Cuba," said Beatriz Porto, who handles customer and employee relations as well as the community outreach efforts. "Then Glendale grew, so we grew with Glendale. But the number one sellers are still the typical Cuban things--potato balls and cheese rolls, mango mousse, and as far as the pastries, anything fruity or tropical looking, those are the things that sell the most besides the Cuban goodies that my mother taught us."

Rosa Porto was a home economics teacher and Raul Porto Sr. was a salesman when the Cuban revolution brought Fidel Castro to power. The couple left for L.A. with no English language skills and no job prospects.

But they had some family and friends in their newly adopted city, and Rosa Porto was known among them for her skills in the kitchen. After baking a cake for a relative's wedding, she soon got other requests, and four years later, in 1974, the couple opened their first store.

Raul Porto Jr. was often enlisted to help with such things as lease negotiations and equipment purchases, because he spoke English.

Although the three children worked alongside their parents, they were also encouraged to attend college. Raul Porto Jr. and Navarro got business degrees and Beatriz majored in political science and thought she might like to go to law school.

None of the kids thought they would make their careers in the bakery.

"When we first went into college, none of us thought we would stay," said Raul Porto Jr. "It was too small. But four or six years later, the bakery was big enough. It was, 'hey. this is not bad. They're paying you $20,000 to work at an entry level job (outside), and by then the bakery was big enough to offer some challenges."

Founders' influence

No one can quite pinpoint when the next generation took the reins, in part because the influence of the founders is still strong. Rosa Porto was active in the business until about three years ago, and Raul Porto St. still comes to the bakery every day.

"I think this business is standing because of their hard work, and we just used them as inspiration and continued on," Navarro said.

The founders began the process of expanding the business, adding different breads, new pastry items and introducing sandwiches, at first limited to traditional Cuban-style items.

With the new menu items came more customers, and with them, more employees and a need for new systems.

"Computers are what did my dad in," said Raul Porto Jr. "He always worked the front. And as we started getting more and more computerized, he wasn't able to just ring a customer up, and with more customers we bad more procedures and more training, and he started realizing it was just more difficult."

With increased volume and a desire to keep not only the flavor of the original business but prices that harken back to the low cost ethnic bakeries of the past, Porto's has become highly automated.

"We have a product which we sold from day one, guava pie, that pie is still 50 cents or 55 cents," said Raul Porto Jr. "That's really not a very realistic price outside of the ethnic bakeries. The way we get around it, we automated a lot. Volume allowed us to buy better, machines, faster machines.

By SHELLY GARCIA

Senior Reporter