The oft-delayed Porto’s Bakery coming to Downtown Disney will feature a table service restaurant and a full bar — a pair of firsts for the Cuban sweets and treats foodie phenom that was announced two years ago but has been stalled ever since.
Concept art of the new Porto’s offers the first look at the eatery taking over the former La Brea Bakery location on the east end of the outdoor shopping mall next door to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
The new Porto’s in Downtown Disney will feature a bakery, quick service cafe, sit-down table service restaurant and full bar.
Concept art of the Porto’s Bakery lounge coming to Downtown Disney. (Courtesy of Disney)
Concept art shows tables and chairs on an outdoor patio on the second floor and an express window on the ground floor for take-out orders.
Additional concept art shows a full bar on the first floor with orange and green furniture in a lounge area and Rosa Porto’s family photos on the walls.
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Porto’s Bakery & Cafe will begin construction in 2025 on its newest location at Downtown Disney, according to Porto’s officials. The move could have a ripple effect on the nomadic Earl of Sandwich restaurant.
Porto’s Bakery and Cafe in Buena Park, CA, on Monday, June 24, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Porto’s decision to open a Downtown Disney location on the site of the former La Brea Bakery was announced to much fanfare during the D23 Expo in 2022 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
La Brea Bakery closed in early 2023 to make way for the new Porto’s — but construction never started as expected.
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A temporary Earl of Sandwich location moved into the former La Brea Bakery eatery while Porto’s pressed pause on plans for the east end of Downtown Disney.
Earl of Sandwich Pop-Up in Downtown Disney on April 19, 2024 (Carolyn Burt, SCNG)
Earl of Sandwich installed a temporary trailer in early 2024 on the west end of Downtown Disney next to the Star Wars Trading Post — but the pop-up location sat unused for six months.
The temporary trailer finally opened in July — suggesting Earl of Sandwich might soon be exiting the former La Brea Bakery location. But that still hasn’t happened.
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Earl of Sandwich is currently operating both locations at the outdoor shopping mall next to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
The original Earl of Sandwich restaurant was torn down in 2022 along with AMC Theatre, Starbucks West and Sugarboo and Co. as part of the renovation of the west end of Downtown Disney.
Porto’s Bakery and Cafe in Buena Park was voted best bakery in Best of Orange County 2024 balloting. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A new two-story Earl of Sandwich location set to be built near the Downtown Disney performance lawn will include a quick service walk-up counter, sit-down Earl of Sandwich Tavern restaurant and an upstairs bar.
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Amid all the inaction, speculation swirled that Porto’s had backed out of plans to open in Downtown Disney, according to MousePlanet.
“The sticking point appeared to be Disney’s requirement that all Downtown Disney partners open their doors 365 days a year, including Thanksgiving and Christmas,” according to MousePlanet.
Rosa and Raul Porto Sr. stand in front of their original bakery in the 1970s. (Courtesy of the Porto Family)
Other Porto’s locations are closed or close early around the Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons.
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The Downtown Disney bakery would be Porto’s seventh location in Southern California.
Disney officials announced in 2022 during the D23 Expo that Porto’s Bakery was headed to Downtown Disney as part of the Anaheim outdoor shopping center’s latest renovation.
The Southern California institution — which already has a Buena Park location near Knott’s Berry Farm — rocketed to foodie phenom status in 2016 when it nabbed the top spot on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S.
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