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On the corner of Broadway and Winslow Street sits a bakery and cafe with tall ceilings, giant arched windows, green foliage and exposed brick walls. In the center of the bakery is a pastry case – but you won’t find the typical croissants and muffins here. Instead, the case is stuffed with madialunas and alfajores de maizena.
This is Baires Bakery and Cafe, an “Argentinian bakery embassy,” according to owner Daniel Aristimuno, who grew up in Buenos Aires and moved to the East Bay over 20 years ago.
“In Argentina, we go to the cafe with friends in the morning, the afternoon, after lunch (and) before dinner,” he said. “We are cafe people.”
Medialunas with fruit at Baires Bakery and Cafe in Redwood City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Alfajores on display at Baires Bakery and Cafe, an Argentine bakery in Redwood City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Empanads on display at Baires Bakery and Cafe in Rewdood City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Facturas on display at Baires Bakery and Cafe, an Argentine bakery on Broadway in Redwood City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
Aristimuno opened Baires in downtown Redwood City in October, offering Argentine pastries, empanadas, coffee drinks, sandwiches and pizza. The self-serve pastry case has medialunas (a mix between a croissant and brioche bread), hojaldre pastries (flaky puff pastries), alfajores de maizena (soft sandwich cookies filled with dulce de leche and coated in coconut) and mini pastaflora (quince tarts), ranging from $4.10-$9.50 a piece.
Guests can load up their tray with pastries before heading to the register, where they can order drinks like a submarino (hot milk with a bar of dark chocolate) or order hot food items like empanadas.
Aristimuno chose to set up his bakery in this self-serve model because of his stressful experience at other cafes lining up for the register and having to quickly decide what pastry to order once at the front of the line.
“Here you can spend all the time going as many round and round this place as you want, and take your time, and then when you are ready, go to the counter to pay,” he said.
Having his own bakery and cafe has been a longtime dream of Aristimuno’s, whose background is mostly in selling sport horses. A former equestrian jumper, riding coach and owner of an equestrian academy, Aristimuno considers himself somewhat of a serial entrepreneur, as he currently has a business transporting highly sensitive specimens to and from hospitals and is working on building a factory in Spain to produce frozen ready-made meals.
Aristimuno plans to eventually offer happy hour at Baires with live music, beer and Argentine wine, pending permit approval.
“There’s nothing better than to pair the empanadas with a glass of Argentinian red wine,” he said.
He hopes that with Baires he can both introduce the Argentine cafe culture to the Bay Area as well as be a haven for Argentine expats in the area. He said he aims to open one or two more Baires locations in other cities later this year.
Baires Bakery & Cafe, 2400 Broadway, Redwood City; 925-719-2309, Instagram: @baires_bakerycafe. Open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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