Long before Orange City wakes, the glow from one bakery kitchen is already spilling onto trays of fresh bread and glass cases slowly filling with sweets.
It’s a space that feels exactly as any neighborhood bake shop should — compact, bustling and just large enough to keep every loaf, tart and laminated pastry within arm’s reach of the hands that made it.
At Panypan, most customers are on a first-name basis with those behind the counter, owner Jaime De Sa, and his wife Adrina — the same pair who arrives at 2 a.m. each morning to mix, shape and bake everything from scratch.
The expertise of De Sa, born in Venezuela to Portuguese roots, is woven into every basket and display case, where time-perfected recipes become more than breakfast.
Here, they tell a story of patience, craftsmanship and a loyal community built one roll at a time.
What’s on the menu at Panypan Bakery?
“You can see there’s a good variety of things. I do my own doughs. I don’t buy anything frozen, and I try to work with European products as much as I can,” De Sa said, including his flours and jellies. “… They have very strict regulations on how you manage and make the food (in Europe) … . It teaches you to do things the right way.”
Alongside French baguettes, pan andino (sweet Venezuelan bread), quesitos and pan dulce, the shop turns out a regular supply of European-style sourdough, or “Farmers Bread,” made from the longtime recipe of De Sa’s late grandmother.
Traditional sourdough is prepared throughout the week, De Sa said, producing roughly three dozen sourdough boules that often sell out within just a few hours on any given Sunday.
It’s one of the more time-consuming products, alongside croissants, he said, which often take a baker two to three days to prepare.
“It’s not easy … . It’s a lot of people that make croissants, but not a good croissant — something that you bite and it’s crunchy, it’s soft inside and it’s buttery,” he explained, noting he keeps his dough cold to slow the fermentation process.
“The slower the fermentation, the better the taste,” he said.
His Dubai pistachio croissant, completely sold out during my recent morning visit, was introduced a year ago — a favorite that seems to have paved the way for new variations, like his Ferrero Rocher croissant.
“In the bakery, you can do so many things, but of course, if I’m going to put something out there, I’m going to make sure it’s good,” De Sa said, drawing customers from Tampa to Jacksonville and beyond for Berliners (filled and fried German pastries, often likened to a jelly doughnut), guava and Nutella tarts, pastel de nata (Portuguese custard tarts), cinnamon rolls and other items.
The making of Panypan Bakery
Nearly two years after opening, the bakery has become a fixture in Orange City’s historic district, occupying the first floor of a charming century-old home along Graves Avenue. Most mornings, the front door rarely stays shut for long as customers shuffle in and out, others lingering over lattes on the porch.
For De Sa, born in the city of Valencia, it’s not just any dream come true — “This is my American dream,” he said.
“My grandfather had a bakery in Venezuela many, many years ago,” which he sold while De Sa was still too young to remember it, he said. “So, I never was interested in the baking,” ultimately building a career as a diesel mechanic, which he maintained until the age of 34, when he moved his family to Portugal in 2008.
“When I got to Portugal … it wasn’t that many jobs available as a diesel mechanic, but my family had bakeries,” De Sa explained, noting that flour, yeast and fermentation were all entirely foreign concepts to him.
“That was the work that was available right away for me, and I have my wife and two kids. So, I had to put my hands in something to do quick,” he said. “So, I started working in the bakery, and I didn’t know anything about bakeries. But after 12 years working there almost 12 hours a day, I learned.”
The idea of bringing his craft to the U.S. wasn’t part of his original plan, though it organically emerged during a pre-pandemic visit to his sister — a Florida resident who’d lived in the States for more than four decades.
While looking to visit a local bakery, what he found instead was an abundance of Panera-style restaurants equipped with bakery counters — a stark contrast from the dedicated, mom-and-pop shops where he’d long honed his craft and a model that, he believed, often forced the bakery into the background.
“A restaurant is difficult, and a bakery is difficult. When you put two difficult things together, one of them is going to go to the side,” he explained. “… This takes time. I get here at 2 a.m. every single day with my wife, and I start baking everything fresh. That’s the life of a baker. People that have a bakery — especially like this one, a small house — cannot mass produce things. You have to do one by one.”
De Sa relocated to the States roughly four years ago and began baking from home before meeting his current landlord through a mutual contact. With plans to transform the 316 E. Graves Ave. home into a small café, she expressed interest in selling De Sa’s bread on-site, though he had another idea.
“I said to her, ‘I don’t think I can do that. I think the best thing I can do is that you rent me the place, and I put a little bakery here,’” De Sa said. By September 2024, his doors were open.
While the Orange City location came together almost by chance, it introduced him to a community whose unwavering support has made it feel exactly where he was meant to be.
“The most rewarding (part) is meeting new people every single day,” De Sa said.
“I wasn’t expecting the community of Orange City to be so wonderful that my first day and my second day, I was sold out and had a line of people,” he continued, a steady backing that’s only grown with time. “It has been a blessing.”
— Helena Perray is the food and dining reporter for The Daytona Beach News-Journal. Follow her on Instagram and support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Pastry cases span cultures at Orange City bakery
Reporting by Helena Perray, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Helena Perray, Daytona Beach News-Journal | USA TODAY Network
