Farmer’s market success leads to new Portuguese bakery in Galt

By Joe McGinty

No more driving to St. Jacobs Farmers Market for fresh Portuguese bread and pastries. After waiting months to open, A Portuguesa Bakery is now serving fresh baked goods to customers in Cambridge. 

When you walk into the bakery at 118 St. Andrews Street in Galt, the first thing you'll notice is display cases full of glistening pastries and flaky croissants. 

Ready to greet you at the door are owners Maria De Sousa and, if he's not making fresh butter tarts in the back, her husband Mario. 

“We have been waiting for months to finally open our doors, but with the renovations we have had to push it a little bit,” said Maria.

Having started their business at the St. Jacobs Farmers Market in 2020, they quickly became a hit with their authentic Portuguese pastries and delicious custard tarts, so flaky they fall apart in your hand.

Mario has been in the kitchen since he was nine-years-old, baking in his home kitchen in Sintra, a town right outside of Lisbon, Portugal. He remembers as a boy, helping his family cook and all the delicious food they would eat; cooking and baking would bring them closer together. 

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Mario De Sousa holds a warm pan of freshly baked croissants 

This love for food sent him on a journey to become a pastry chef, learning in institutions in Portugal that were over 300 years old. 

“I wanted a change and ended up moving to Toronto to work with a large pastry company,” said Mario. “After awhile I really wanted to go on my own and start my own bakery.” 

A Potuguesa Bakery first started serving at the St. Jacobs Farmers Market twice a week. They would make everything fresh in the commercial kitchens offered by the farmers market, but this would be one of the main reasons they wanted to venture out and have their own facility. 

“We would have only a few hours to bake the day before and only an hour to clean up,” said Mario. “It was becoming too much and we always knew we wanted to have our own space one day.”

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A Portuguesa Bakery and Pastry at 118 St. Andrews St. is now open . Joe McGinty/CambridgeToday

When the building on St. Andrews became available, they knew they needed to jump on it. Being in a part of town where there are not many options for fresh Portuguese bread and baked goods they wanted to make sure they were able to serve this community and fill that void. 

“We made a commitment to our customers and to this community to offer them fresh bread and be a place where they can come to to feel like they are known and seen,” said Mario. “At some of these bigger chains and cafes, you can go there for a year and nobody will know who you are.” 

The De Sousa's have been doing all of the renovations on their own with the help of a friend to help cut down on costs. They are still in the process of getting things ready with the hanging of a digital menu, adding more pastries to the shelves and being able to offer fresh baked Portuguese bread in the coming weeks. 

With the rising costs of services like electrical work and securing machines to bake, the De Sousa's felt like they needed to open the doors a few weeks early to start getting a bit of cash flowing through the door. 

“It would have been my preference to wait another week or two when we had all of the digital menus up and everything sorted, but we weren't getting that cash coming in,” said Maria. “It's hard to run a business when you are only working two days a week at the farmers market.” 

Portuguesa is still offering what they consider to be the best Portuguese pastries in town and with Maria originally being from Brazil she wants to start selling treats and soups from her South American homeland. 

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Traditional Portuguese custard doughnuts covered with powdered sugar. Joe McGinty/CambridgeToday

The bakery in Cambridge is ran 100 per cent by the De Sousa family; the son is behind the counter with mom and dad in the back creating authentic Portuguese treats and meals for Cambridge. 

They still plan on serving at the St. Jacobs Farmers Market twice a week for all of their customers outside of the city, but will be open from Mon-Sat. for those that don't want to wait for the weekend. 

“We are just so happy to be in this community and being able to serve them, we know how much the support us and we want to be able to return the favour,” said Maria.  

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