CITY Bakery is a family-owned business that was started by our grandfather Lam Far (Seto Chin). He was a businessman born in Canton (Guangdong), China in 1912 and came to the city of Baguio in 1936. He worked with several establishments including Dainty and Mabuhay Restaurants before establishing his own business. His very own City Bakery and Grocery was built in 1945 right after World War II and was located along lower Session Road.
He had six children with Adela Mendoza, our dear grandmother. Irene, Zacarias, Aniceto, Erlinda (my mom), Andrew and John, all raised together with the bakery. All taking turns in watching and learning the ropes of the business. It had grown into a successful venture with products such as its cinnamon rolls and squares, pan de coco and muffins rising into fame.
In the late 1950s, it reached its peak when huge crowds would be lining up at 1O a.m. and 3 p.m. waiting for the famous Pan de Vienna to come out in large wicker baskets. Even after the death of Grandfather in 1970, the bakery continued to thrive and grow even more.
But as fate would have its way, the business suffered a great hit during the 1990 earthquake and has not been able to rise from the rubbles. My grandma was probably the one who took the hardest hit as it was her greatest memory of our grandfather. Even before she passed away three years ago at the age of 94, she would still have vivid memories of him and this great place.
Perhaps our little solace today is when the Baguio City Government and the Centennial Commission recognized our grandfather’s bakery with Baguio Builders Award in 2009.
Fast forward to our present-day pandemic times, being bread lovers, imagine our panic when we heard that bakeries were suspending their operations and bread supplies were dwindling, it was like game over for us. And as we attempt to adapt to the challenging times, we started baking to survive.
The bread we bake was supposedly for our consumption but then how could we not think of other people who are also struggling in this very difficult ordeal? Coincidentally, our barangay called out residents who were willing to sell their products during its market day and this has been our chance to display our homemade bread twice a week for the past three months now. We made sure to preserve the quality--City bakery is proud of. Price is also affordable so more people can buy it.
This quarantine turned out to be a great opportunity to help and at the same time showcase our bakery again. Since we didn’t have bakery equipment, we had to make bread manually with whatever we had. We started our City Bakery-Descendants Edition as a homage to our family’s heritage. It may not be as big as it used to be but we are just happy that we had this big nudge that put us back on the map. And we are inspired by the fact that there are still people today who remember us fondly and are sincerely elated that we have returned after 30 years.
We take pride in the fact that it is still a family run business with the second, third and even the fourth generation pitching in from weighing the ingredients, mixing the dough, baking the bread up until selling and advertising the products. It is our hope that our legacy will continue to put smiles on other’s faces as they bite into our bread. Happiness for us will always be the smell of freshly baked bread. And as Miguel de Cervantes said, "All sorrows are less with bread."
Please check our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/citybakerydescendants/. Edith Seto Lam Loma-ang Santos