Pico Union bakery rolls out food truck offering homemade pan dulce

PICO UNION, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- For 18 years, the sweet smells of homemade pan dulce have emanated from Panaderia Cuscatleca in Pico Union. And now, the family business is going mobile.

"Pan Dulce is big in our Latin community, so this whole idea came about, 'Hey, I haven't seen a mobile pan dulce trailer, and maybe I can tap into that' and I actually did, and it's here!" said Gabriela Monroy of Sweet LA Bakery.

Monroy says, technically, Sweet LA Bakery is a separate business, but there's no denying it's still a family affair.

"My parents own the bakery, siblings all work there, but I wanted to branch out and take it to the streets," said Monroy.

She now operates her mobile business all across Los Angeles. From downtown, to Hollywood, to Koreatown. Monroy says she has a lot of regulars, but even the first-timers are impressed.

"We work locally around here, so we stopped by," said customer Matt Violano. "We hadn't seen it before, so we thought we'd stop and get something."

Monroy's father was born in El Salvador, and at first, he didn't think her business would get off the ground. But during Hispanic Heritage Month, especially as El Salvador approaches its bicentennial, he says her success brings the entire family great pride.

"When I told him about this idea he said 'You're nuts, it won't happen!'" said Monroy. "And I'm like 'No, c'mon.' And eventually, I got it done, so now he sees it and says 'Wow, you built it, it's here, you're selling and it's going good!'"