2010
Room at the worktable.
Sour Flour records that it began baking in La Victoria’s kitchen in 2010, using its tables, equipment, and oven with support from the production and distribution staff.
Our story
The bread endures. The city changes.
La Victoria has lived at more than one address and through more than one generation of stewardship. Its continuous thread is people, craft, and 24th Street.
A bakery can be a business and a living archive: of work, migration, family, celebration, and survival.
Gabriel Maldonado founded La Victoria in 1951 and brought Mexican baking tradition to 24th Street when the corridor was still largely lined with Irish and Italian businesses. Over time, the bakery became a familiar presence for generations of Mission customers.
A few other dates in the public record remain less tidy, especially some transition years. Those differences are marked in the timeline.
Archive note: La Victoria was founded in 1951. The City’s 2025 Legacy Business file documents a 1962 listing; it is noted here as context, not as a second public date.
A documented timeline
From one Mission corner to the next chapter.
Each chapter links to its sources. Uncertain dates are marked plainly.
- 1951Origins
A bakery takes root on 24th Street
Gabriel Maldonado founded La Victoria in 1951. The City’s 2025 Legacy Business file documents a 1962 listing for “La Victoria Mexican Pastries”; that record is kept here as archival context, not as a second public founding year.
Source: City and County of San Francisco (opens in a new tab), KQED (opens in a new tab)
- 196724th Street
The corner at 24th and Alabama
City records place La Victoria at 2937 24th Street beginning in 1967. For more than five decades, the corner storefront became a familiar presence in the Mission.
Source: City and County of San Francisco (opens in a new tab)
- 1990s–2010sContinuity
Family stewardship and a changing neighborhood
Jaime Maldonado took over operations from his father as the bakery adapted to dramatic changes around it. The kitchen also became a home for small food businesses, including Sour Flour beginning in 2010.
Source: City and County of San Francisco (opens in a new tab), KQED (opens in a new tab)
- 2018Transition
The old storefront closes
A property and family dispute forced the bakery from its longtime home. Baking paused only briefly while Laura Hernandez and Danny Gabriner prepared the next chapter.
Source: City and County of San Francisco (opens in a new tab), Eater San Francisco (opens in a new tab)
- 2019Return
Back on 24th Street
La Victoria SF opened at 3249 24th Street, at Capp, bringing its bakers and pan dulce back to the neighborhood after a two-month transition.
Source: City and County of San Francisco (opens in a new tab), Mission Local (opens in a new tab)
- 2023Bayview chapter
Pan dulce reaches a second door
In 2023, Eater reported that La Victoria SF began retail sales from its Bayview production facility at 1565 Kirkwood Avenue after four years of production there. The main retail shop remained at 24th and Capp; this was a distinct chapter, not a replacement for the Mission storefront.
- 2025–todayToday
A San Francisco Legacy Business
San Francisco added La Victoria SF to its Legacy Business Registry in 2025. The 24th Street shop continues to serve the public, while production moved to 484 5th Street.
Source: City and County of San Francisco (opens in a new tab), Sour Flour (opens in a new tab)
Visual archive
A corner you can still recognize.
This openly licensed photograph preserves La Victoria’s sign and the slope of Alabama before the 2018 transition. It is a historical image, not a current view of the shop.
Credit: Eric Fischer via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0. The crop used here remains within the license and does not imply endorsement.
Storefront detail
The sign that held the corner.
This neon detail recalls La Victoria’s everyday presence at the former 24th Street and Alabama corner. The image is preserved as a historical archive; the current shop is at 3249 24th Street, at Capp.
Credit: TravisGrathwell via LocalWiki Contributors · CC BY 4.0. The photograph’s date is not documented.
The bakery today
Continuity is visible, too.
Photos shared by La Victoria SF show the people, work, and storefront carrying the current chapter forward.
A bakery in motion
The story is baked every day, too.
The corner, the counter, the oven, and the conchas: these photographs bring the everyday work connecting La Victoria and its community into view.
Continuity through people
The legacy does not live in a sign alone.
Laura Hernandez worked at La Victoria for years before taking on its stewardship with Danny Gabriner. The City record describes a family operation today: daughters, a brother, nephews, and coworkers who bake, pack, repair equipment, and make deliveries.
The Mission
A neighborhood that fought for the right to remain.
KQED documents how Mission residents organized against urban-renewal plans that threatened to displace the community. La Victoria belongs to that wider story of visible, everyday, resilient Latino culture on 24th Street.