Panapolis Bakery opened its fourth San Jose location in October, in City Council District 2, San José Spotlight reports. Customers began lining up an hour before the doors opened. Within 90 minutes, the cases were empty.
From a van to four shops
Owner Aldo Ortiz is a third-generation baker. He came to the U.S. in 2012 at 16 and started baking in 2015 at his uncle's Panaderia Ortiz in Morgan Hill, according to the Spotlight. After opening a Panapolis in Michoacán, Mexico, he returned to San Jose in 2020 and started selling from a van.
In 2023, Telemundo Área de la Bahía followed the van on its route. Ortiz posted his stops on Instagram and baked from 1 a.m. His lineup included conchas, orejas, pan de elote and pan de muerto. He told Telemundo that customers came from as far as Orange County.
Social media videos, one with 9 million views, pushed sales from under $200 a day to more than $1,000, the Spotlight reported. He opened his first shop in a former bakery and his second in late 2025 in a former Chinese restaurant. The third opened in July in a former Taco Bell turned ramen shop.
The scale now
Panapolis is open from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m., and baking starts again an hour after closing, Ortiz told the Spotlight. The bakeries make 40 to 50 kinds of pastries and sell 4,000 to 5,000 pieces a day. “I would like to have 100 bakeries here in California in five years,” he said.
District 2 Councilmember Pamela Campos attended the opening. “We need more diverse bakeries and local small businesses to support,” she told the Spotlight.
More San Jose food: Levain Bakery's planned Santana Row shop.