MANCHESTER, NH – It has been a long time coming – too long, if you ask Jose Mojica – but it still feels good to be back in business. He and his wife, Angela, have reopened their specialty shop, Dulces Bakery, formerly located on Amory Street.
Although the past 18 months have been a true test of faith for the Mojica family, they are still standing and ready to welcome customers to their new sweet shop, at 424 Chestnut Street. They had to close their previous location on the West Side after their landlord decided to take the space in a new direction, leaving the Mojicas with not enough time or resources to relocate.
And it was an unfortunate twist of fate, as Dulces Bakery earned two top prizes – People’s Choice for Angela’s sumptuous tres leches cake, and Best Booth, for their variety of samples and colorful booth during the 2016 annual Caregivers Chocolate Lovers Fantasy competition at the Doubletree Hilton, just one year after opening their shop in March of 2015.
“We’ve learned a lot from all of this,” says Jose Mojica. “But we said we’d be back and we’re ready to build the business, better than ever.”
They’ve spend the past year working hard to get their new space up to code and ready for customers. Although they’ve had setbacks, many of them out of their control, they’ve managed to reopen before another calendar year had passed.
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For now it’s a soft opening, with hours limited to Wed. -Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. But a grand reopening is scheduled for Dec. 1. In the meantime, Angela will be packaging up her award-winning tres leches cake in handy to-go cups, and she is also taking custom cake orders.
In order to get up to full speed, they are also seeking some kitchen help – an experienced baker, preferably with authentic Puerto Rican cuisine experience – needed to help fulfill the Mojica’s dream of not only ramping up their dessert shop menu, but expanding it to include breakfast and lunch items. Rather than compete with other city bakeries, they want to capitalize on their niche, which is bringing a taste of the island to Manchester.
Located adjacent to the old Post Office Fruit Co. luncheonette at the corner of Chestnut and Amherst streets, Jose Mojica says part of the new and improved dream is to be able to take over the entire space one day, and create a lunch shop featuring Spanish cuisine – currently the old Post Office Fruit Co. space is not available.
But the Mojicas don’t have time to wait. They are moving, full-steam ahead, excited to introduce the downtown to Dulces Bakery and build a family business in the heart of the city.
