North Texans might not be familiar with her name, but there is a good chance that many of them have eaten Maricsa Trejo’s pastries.
Trejo is one of four owners of La Casita Bakeshop, a wholesale supplier of freshly baked bread and pastries for the region.
Trejo and her team produce 2,200 to 2,700 pastries every day, which they sell to more than 150 coffee shops and restaurants all around the metroplex. Their wholesale customers include La La Land Kind Cafe, Parks Coffee, The Statler, and Cultivar Coffee, to name just a few.
La Casita Bakeshop, a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bakery, has recently moved from its first brick-and-mortar location into a much larger 6,000-square-foot space in Richardson, where it offers baked goods to retail customers on weekends.
In addition, the bakeshop owners opened La Casita Coffee in Rowlett in January, selling coffee, sandwiches, pastries, and more.
But these achievements did not come easily. Trejo’s recipe for success involved grit, determination, and a lot of effort.
Trejo recounted the many years she spent working seven days a week to get her business off the ground. She would work late into the night baking her creations and then spend the day going door-to-door to sell her products to local businesses, often forgoing sleep.
The idea for her business was the result of a slow evolution of experiences and circumstances.
Trejo told The Dallas Morning News that her earliest childhood memories revolved around food, and those happy memories led her to work in the food industry. After graduating high school, she attended culinary school at El Centro in Dallas.
Later, while working at a restaurant, she offered to help the pastry chef catch up on some work, and it was then that she discovered her love of baking.
She traveled around the world honing her baking skills before eventually deciding to strike out on her own in 2017.
She started out trading free baked goods for the use of kitchen space at a small brewpub restaurant where her fiancee Alex Henderson worked as a chef. It was Henderson who suggested that Trejo focus on wholesale customers.
Henderson soon became Trejo’s husband as well as her business partner, supporting her as she worked those long days and nights, focusing on the fledgling business. The couple opened their first brick-and-mortar bakery shop in late 2019, selling to retail customers on weekends.
However, when the COVID-19 lockdowns hit about five weeks later, they had to adjust their business model. But La Casita Bakeshop survived and continued to thrive.
In 2021, two additional business partners joined the venture, opening up opportunities to grow and expand the business further.
In late 2021, the four business partners launched Doro’s Fine Foods, an event catering concept. They also purchased a venue in Frisco where they can cater and host various events.
Visit La Casita Bakeshop at 580 W. Arapaho Rd. in Richardson, open for retail sales on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
