Adega’s Portuguese bakery opens Friday in downtown San Jose

Seven months after the frenzy for its Portuguese custard tarts began, San Jose’s highly acclaimed Adega restaurant will open a spin-off bakery downtown.

This Friday, Nov. 22, the first pastéis de nata will come out of the Pastelaria Adega ovens at 30 E. Santa Clara St. — about three miles from the restaurant.

Seven days a week, the pastelaria will also bake specialty Portuguese breads and other treats and serve coffee from Delta Cafes, a Portuguese roasting company, according to co-owners Carlos and Fernanda Carreira.

But the “pastéis de nata will always be the focus and major attraction,” Carlos said. “Customers have been anxiously inquiring about the new space for a while. We expect to see quite a few of Adega patrons attending opening week.”

The bakery is the newest tenant in a building owned by Urban Community. “We worked with Adega to design and develop a facility that will enable them to continue to expand their overall footprint in San Jose,” developer Gary Dillabough, the company’s co-owner, said in a statement.

In February 2018, CFP 30 East Santa Clara Street, a group led by venture capitalist and real estate investor Dillabough, paid $6 million for the 30,000-square-foot building, county property documents show.

Dillabough has purchased multiple properties on this block, including the Bank of Italy office tower and a big nearby surface parking lot that fronts on Fountain Alley, which is at the back of 30 E. Santa Clara St.

The new bakery venture lines up with Dillabough’s current endeavors to activate widening stretches of downtown San Jose.

Adega’s sideline started with a simple pop-up held in late April on a Saturday morning. Customers who had been clamoring for an opportunity to purchase the custards featured on pastry chef Jessica Carreira and chef David Costa’s menu lined up along Alum Rock Avenue in San Jose’s Little Portugal neighborhood. The sale was a huge success, with dozens of pastéis de nata selling out in about an hour, and became a weekly event.

Jessica spent three years perfecting her recipe after first discovering these treats while working in Lisbon. “It’s a surprisingly simple recipe with few ingredients — including flour, eggs, sugar, lemon, cinnamon — but extremely difficult to execute,” Carlos Carreira said of his daughter’s specialty.

The pastelaria — which will be open from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m daily — will also bake a large variety of breads using flours that are “unbleached, unbromated and, whenever possible, organic,” he said. Among them will be the the Portuguese corn bread broa de milho and pão de leite rolls. Soon after opening, sandwiches on these breads will be available for lunchtime customers.

Sweets will expand beyond the custards to include Portuguese rice muffins (bolos de arroz), sponge cakes (queques) and brioche-based croissants filled with chocolate, he said.

Related Articles Downtown San Jose’s first Black-owned coffeehouse opens Saturday

South San Jose’s Fish Market restaurant will close permanently

Cochon 555 pork-o-rama becomes an interactive online feast this year

Which Bay Area employers have announced layoffs

Museum of Ice Cream offers free virtual “Sundae School” for kids All of these tastes of Portugal will come with a signature touch from the country: They will be served using the brilliant white porcelain plates and cups from Vista Alegre, a legendary company that dates to 1824.

Details: Pastelaria Adega is located at 30 E. Santa Clara St., No. 130. Adega restaurant is at 1614 Alum Rock Ave. www.adegarest.com

Share this: Print

View more on The Mercury News