Melanie Hernandez
Audio By Carbonatix
Graciela’s Bakery, located along Carroll Avenue in Old East Dallas, has been a cornerstone of its community for more than three decades. But by using social media, it’s attracting new customers.
The family behind the bakery began baking and selling Mexican sweet breads in the early ’90s; patriarch Jose baked, and mom, Graciela, and daughter, also Graciela, sold door-to-door in East Dallas. In May 1992, they opened their storefront, Graciela’s Bakery.
The three of them still lead daily operations. They all help bake the pan dulce, but Jose is the preferred baker; he doesn’t even measure the ingredients anymore; it’s all second nature to him. The younger Graciela runs their social media accounts.
The two Graciela’s, mom and daughter, both help bake, sell and create social media content.
Melanie Hernandez
“It kind of felt like we had to at this point,” she says. “If you have a business, I think we all depend on social media, and with the encouragement of a lot of our customers too, they were like, ‘Oh, you should do this,’ or ‘You should do that.’ It’s been a year and a half, and it’s been going pretty well.”
With almost 1,500 followers on Instagram and over 11,000 likes on
While Jose is the shy one, he still makes an appearance.
They enjoy creating timely and fun designs atop conchas and bread for posts, like three large sun, moon and eclipse conchas in celebration of the April 2024 solar eclipse.
New customers frequently cite social media as the reason why they decided to visit. Others discover the bakery through collaborations, like with Café Ciro, a Latino-based cafe pop-up that has set up in front of the store.
Recently, a Valentine’s Day post of their heart-shaped conchas arrangement caught the attention of Telemundo, which led to a segment about the festive bread, bringing in even more new customers.
Last year for Mother’s Day, they created a rose-shaped concha bouquet. They’ve also made a big Mexican flag and a big blue star outlined in white to resemble the Dallas Cowboys logo.
They also sell the traditional rosca de reyes (wreath of the kings), using a pink version, as well as a personalized Hello Kitty rosca.
Not much has changed at Graciela’s over 33 years, except for creating social media content.
Melanie Hernandez
While they are creative with bread designs they still sell all the classic pan dulce like ojos de buey (bull’s eye), marranitos (pig-shaped bread), cuernitos (bull’s horn), muffins, pan de muerto (bread of the dead), polvorones (like a Mexican sugar cookie), cinnamon rolls and, of course, the classic conchas in various colors.
The younger Graciela says her mother is the heart of the bakery and the reason customers keep coming back, which is why she’s often at the center of social media posts.
“A lot of people love her around here and know her face,” says the daughter. “That’s why we focus on featuring her and having everything revolve around her.”
While they love that social media brings in new customers, they do not forget about the loyal ones. Because of them, they keep their bread prices low. While they love seeing new faces, they know the regulars instantly.
“Over time, sales have dropped off, and many people have left East Dallas,” Jose says. “But we still have people who come here and tell us that their parents brought them here when they were kids, and now they bring their kids here. It’s nice that they remember us and come back to see us.”
Graciela’s Bakery, 112 S. Carroll Ave., Open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
