“We want everybody to feel at home,” said Leticia Garcia, picturing what diners should experience at the new bakery-café, Antigua. She and co-owner Brenda Araneda located Antigua in a cozy three-dining room house that seats 27 on Harlingen’s East Harrison.

The café has a laidback and intimate ambience that is attracting a solid customer base built on word-of-mouth and return business. Open since mid-February, Antigua serves homemade pastries, soups and salads from 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.for dining in or taking out, along with sandwiches assembled on-site with fresh ingredients.

Garcia and Araneda definitely feel at home given that they spend hours baking, one of their biggest passions. The pair met about a year ago at a local gym and started talking about their love of treats that “your aunt, your grandmother used to bake.”  They realized the Valley doesn’t offer that kind of quality and variety at its bakeries.

“Pan dulce is all you’ll find here,” Garcia said, while noting that isn’t bad in itself, just limiting. Araneda agreed, adding that the most glamorous pastry she could find was “cake or a cupcake with frosting.” Linked by their love of homemade special pastries, they decided to open a bakery, one that would offer a daily treasure trove of treats from gourmet bars (like pistachio-apricot) to coffee cakes (Blueberry Buckle) to elaborate liquor-infused goodies (Kahlua Cake).

“And then we ended up making a menu with soups, salads and sandwiches because we didn’t think we could survive with just the bakery,” Garcia said.

But pastries came first. Filling the four-tier pastry case each day, Garcia estimated they’ve introduced about 50-60 desserts so far, with the Morning Glory muffin the big seller in the morning and her cheesecakes, particularly the Mango and Carrot, attracting the most sales later in the day.

As first-time restaurant owners, they were completely surprised by the volume of business they attracted from day one. “The first two weeks,” Garcia said, “we were like, ‘oh my God, we’re going nuts.’” It hasn’t let up since, but they’ve ironed out the kinks, with the busiest rush at lunch, between 11:50 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., after which the kitchen closes.

Antigua’s early success reflects how popular the bakery-café concept has become in the United States. Encompassing chains like Panera Bread and Corner Bakery, it is one of the country’s fastest-growing restaurant subsegments, with growth skyrocketing particularly between 2008 and 2011, when sales increased by 12 percent. Fueling the proliferation of these businesses are return customers, which definitely is Antigua’s aim. Although Garcia is familiar with Panera, Antigua did not start to take advantage of an industry niche.  The women’s strategy is to run a welcoming place where customers eat a homemade treat and relax.

Such an experience is what Araneda expects of bakeries, given that in Antigua, Guatemala, her hometown, the European-style bakeries not only dazzle with their sophisticated pastries, but also charm with their relaxing ambience. “In my country they have places that are homey. You go inside, and they have sofas.  You can have a coffee and a piece of cake.”

To read more on this story, pick up a copy of the June edition of Valley Business Report or visit the “Current & Past Issues” tab on this Web site.