Cafecito is a family-owned Mexican bakery of two years based in Redmond and serving King County. The business is owned and run by Lizeet Bustamante and her boyfriend Porfirio Salazar, and Bustamante’s daughter, Yiselle. This is Cafecito’s first year at the Renton Farmers Market.
“Pastries and coffee are a huge part of Mexican culture,” Bustamante said. “We’d been looking for a Mexican bakery in the area, but couldn’t find one, so we started our own.”
Cafecito is the first Mexican bakery on the eastside of Seattle, Bustamante said.
Conchas are one of the business’s top-selling pastries and the most widely-known Mexican pan dulce (Spanish for sweet bread). The bread is more subtly sweet and holds together when dipped in coffee — an important aspect, Bustamante said, that comes from Mexican influence when French and Spanish pastries brought to Latin America would dissolve in coffee. Concha (Spanish for shell) is named after the way the frosted pastry resembles a shell.
While conchas are always made and served at Cafecito, other foods are on a seasonal rotation. Bustamante’s favorite is the Pan de muerto (Spanish for bread of the dead), for Día de los Muertos celebrations in the fall. The sweet bread is baked full of orange zest, and Bustamante said they constantly smell like oranges in the fall.
Bustamante is proud of the hard work and love that goes into making the pastries.
“We get to provide these foods fresh and real,” Bustamante said. For many, it’s their first time tasting authentic Mexican pastries, and for others, people say it reminds them of home, she said.
“I think that people tend to think Mexican pastries are cheaper,” Bustamante said. “If done properly, though, these treats are expensive, and use the same eggs, butter, and labor that French pastries and others use. We’re trying to bring the thought of Mexican pastries to the same level as French ones.”
Cafecito has a small dine-in located in Redmond and has business in catering, farmers markets, and online orders all over King County. The business is saving up for a bigger space, Bustamante said.
“In lots of cultures bakeries are for grabbing food on the way to work, but in our culture you sit down and connect,” Bustamante said. “That’s why having a place is so important to us.”
Find more at cafecitomexicanbakery.com.
Print Ritual: Local merch
Print Ritual is a Renton-based online business (except when it has a booth at the Renton Farmers Market) that sells originally-designed stickers, pins, hats, patches, magnets and shirts.
Greg Cook, founder and owner of Print Ritual, always loved illustration and got into graphic design in college, and eventually founded Print Ritual in 2012. The business collaborates with local artists, designers, illustrators and photographers, Cook said.
One friend of Cook’s is Kameron Peck, a fellow Lindbergh High School graduate, maker of a Cedar River Trail design available on stickers and T-shirts.
“It’s easy to to glance over being from Renton and say you’re from Seattle,” Cook said. “But I’ve seen people’s love for Renton and local pride grow. It’s cool to see people get behind a place, see people appreciating a place and showing up.”
Cook grew up in Renton and graduated from Lindbergh High School. Today, he still lives and works here. People come up to the booth and just start talking about Renton history, Cook said: “One older guy brought photos of what some schools and streets used to look like.”
The table included plays on well-known logos substituted with “Renton.” Also, a design of an alien wearing a Bigfoot costume.
“As an artist, finding your niche is important,” Cook said. “At first I made stuff I thought everyone would like, but my designs were kind of boring. Drawing what I think is interesting has been much better.”
Find more at https://print-ritual.myshopify.com.
Greg Cook at the Print Ritual booth. Photos by Annika Hauer
