La Panderia Michoacan #2

La Panaderia Michoacan #2

511 Sespe Ave.

Fillmore CA

Every year my kids earn Magic Mountain passes for reading a certain amount in school, and about three years ago we dialed in our routine. We're up early, and out the door about 90 minutes before the park opens. We stop in Fillmore for breakfast, and then get to the park right as the gates are getting ready to open, staying until the park closes.

Our Fillmore stop used to be the Vons, but we found La Panaderia Michoacan #2 two years ago, and now a pan stop is part of the Magic Mountain routine. Located off of Central about two blocks from the 126 in downtown Fillmore, the locals seem to keep the place pretty busy. It's been the same woman at the counter for the last few years, and she's always nice. My kids remember her as the, "nice lady at the pan dulce shop."

And so we stopped there again, got our bag of pan, and headed out to Magic Mountain. And though I certainly wouldn't make a special trip to Fillmore for $6 worth of pan, I do seem to stop in whenever I happen to be driving by in the morning.

As I've mentioned before, pan dulce that is more than a few hours old seems stale, (La Panaderia Lala, 2/17/13) but fresh pan dulce is pretty good, less greasy than donuts and certainly less expensive. 

Interstingly, when I googled La Panaderia Michoacan #2, there were actually a few in rather random places. Like I noted in my Tacos Jalisco post (4/22/13), lots of these Mexican places share names but aren't connected at all. 

$6.50 worth of pan

One thing to note if you've not tried pan dulce before is that it is very crumbly, making it challenging to eat while driving. 

I'm partial to conches and galletas, but will try whatever strikes my fancy once I'm in a shop. Because everything in a pan dulce shop is made fresh, there are things that are made seasonally, especially when dealing with the fillings of epinadas or ojos do buey, so things do change day to day. And you'll note in the picture, there's a pretty tasty looking cinnamon roll on the tray with the more traditional offerings. Each shop makes a wide variety of pan.

Downtown Fillmore has several antique shops, restaurants and a rail station. To my eye, it shares many characteristics with Santa Paula, and it is a favorite with movie location hunters. It popped up in an episode of CSI a few seasons back, complete with the Wm. L. Morris mural, standing in for a town outside of Las Vegas.

I'll cruise the town at some point in a future post.