Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer and Rafaela Dural.
Hi Jennifer and Rafaela, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory
Rafaela: My mom Jennifer has been baking since I could remember. Between being a mother and a telecoms engineer, she’s a baker. Lessons, cookbooks, and online videos helped her become the self-made baker she is today. Back then, she’d occasionally take cake orders, tiered wedding cakes, birthday cakes, babycakes, all of that. She always talks about wanting to start a bakery in the future so more people can try her baked goods. Before The Pandesal Place, only our family and friends got to taste her baking, and they, too, encouraged my mom to start a business. Something that held her back from starting this small business was the concern that people wouldn’t be into her baking or Filipino desserts in general. But what are daughters for. My sister and I took the big step for her on a whim. It took maybe less than 20 minutes to settle on a name, then we made all the social media, showed our mom, and we were like, “Okay, we’re doing it. You can’t back out now”. Initially, we weren’t aiming for anything huge. It was just going to be a fun family thing for us. My mom would finally have more than just our friends enjoying her baking.
About less than a month later, we got an article feature on D Magazine online, and a rush of orders for The Pandesal Place’s Ube Pandesal came through weekly. Then we were on Eater Dallas. Another month later, we quickly reached 1,000 followers on Instagram. Recently, we were included in the December issue of D Magazine with some other notable local eats! I posted on Twitter about The Pandesal Place with some photos. Overnight, the tweet received over 7,000 retweets and likes, and what shocked us the most was that people outside of Texas were asking about shipping and giving us support. It was very heartwarming to receive support like that. I think all of this has been the most rewarding for my mom Jennifer. How we got to be here was very unexpected to my family. We didn’t expect so many people to love our Ube Pandesal, nor did we think we’d ever reach a point of having to limit our orders. My family is thrilled that we are able to bring limelight to Filipino food.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Jennifer: I’ve never had to bake so much at once, and in big batches, too. Each batch of orders, in the beginning, was a learning experience for me. I’m still trying to get used to it even after these six months. I try to put a twist on traditional recipes to keep our food unique yet interesting. This is also our first business, and we’re learning day-by-day how it’s like.
Rafaela: Because we started in the height of the pandemic, everything was done online and relied on social media, thus, being able to effectively communicate with all of our customers and any potential ones was a bit of a challenge. We hope we have more chances in the future to build positive relationships with the people who continue to support us. I’m a marketing student at UT Dallas, so naturally, I was put in charge of all of our marketing. Throughout this whole process, I’m continuing to learn the do’s and don’ts of social media marketing and what it’s like to build a brand from scratch.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The Pandesal Place is a pop-up home bakery based in Allen, TX serving the surrounding cities. We officially started operating on June 23rd, 2020.
Rafaela: We specialize in Filipino baked goods and desserts, hoping to become a part of the rise of the Filipino food scene, popularizing and familiarizing it among the Dallas area and beyond! Our one goal is simple: to keep serving quality bread. In the Philippines, we have “panaderyas” or corner bakeries, and they’d be inside neighborhoods or along the road. Most of the time, they’re family-owned. It’s part of the daily routine: wake up, walk to the next-door panaderya, and get first dibs on their fresh out the oven pandesals to enjoy for breakfast. At The Pandesal Place, we want to bring this kind of warmth and familiarity to your table, all the while highlighting flavors of the Philippines. In short, we wanna become your friendly neighborhood panaderya! I’ve noticed a rise in Asian cuisine’s popularity, especially in the cities near Allen, and it’s just nice to see people getting hyped up about it. They’ll line-up for it, tell friends about it, make Facebook groups about it. So, my family’s here jumping into the Filipino food movement in the area. We’re making sure no one misses out on the one-of-a-kind Filipino flavor experience that The Pandesal Place has to offer. Our baked goods range from sweet to savory, so I think it suits anyone’s palette!
Jennifer: My daughters called it The Pandesal Place because they say I’m the pandesal expert. The pandesal is something I have worked on for years with lots of trial and error. I’ve been taking baking and pastry lessons since maybe 11 years ago when we were still in the Philippines. I think I’ve really perfected my recipe after all these years. We got on the Ube craze and made our Ube Pandesal the very first product. It has my specialty Ube Halaya recipe as its filling. It felt like the best way to start for The Pandesal Place. We are happy that we can share the food we grew up with, and there is a lot more to come, so keep following us and look out for them!
Pricing:
- $16/dozen Ube Pandesal
- $10 Caramel or Dark Roast Leche Flan
Contact Info:
- Email: thepandesalplace@gmail.com
- Website: https://thepandesalplace.wixsite.com/tpp1
- Instagram: instagram.com/thepandesalplace
- Facebook: facebook.com/thepandesalplace
- Twitter: @pandesalplace
- Other: Quick Links: msha.ke/thepandesalplace
