Lorie Ann Mendoza-Rios is living proof that it’s never too late to accomplish your dreams.
Mendoza-Rios, 53, is the owner and pastry chef of Lighthouse 55 Bakery and Mercantile, which opened last December and is located at 396 Fourth St., Ste. 103, right across from the year-old San Benito County Superior Court.
Mendoza-Rios operates the business along with her husband, Samuel, their son, Eric, and her two daughters, Jaclyn and Michelle. When the bakery opened last December, Mendoza-Rios realized a dream that was nearly 20 years in the making.
“I always helped and watch people open up their own bakeries, so to be able to open up a bakery with my family has been more than I could’ve ever imagined,” said Mendoza-Rios, a 17-year Hollister resident. “I was raised by my parents (Alex and Shirley) to have the determination to never quit and to always learn.”
Mendoza-Rios took her parents’ message to heart. Born in Torrance but raised in San Jose, Mendoza-Rios was 17 when she applied for a job as a cashier at a Fry’s Food store in Milpitas.
“The only job Fry’s had at that time was in the bakery,” said Mendoza-Rios, who had expressed no interest in a baking career until she started working at Fry’s.
Talk about a bit of serendipity. Mendoza-Rios didn’t know it then, but the bakery job that awaited her jump-started what has become her No. 1 passion.
“That’s probably true, that if Fry’s didn’t have a bakery job at that time, I might not be a baker today,” she said.
Mendoza-Rios immediately gained a love for all things baking. Just as important, she combined that enthusiasm with ambition. Mendoza-Rios did whatever she could to become a pastry chef, from reading books to taking classes to observing scratch bakers.
Mendoza-Rios also developed her skills working as baker and cake decorator at renowned places like Dick’s Bakery in San Jose, Greenlee’s Bakery and Cosentino’s Market.
She also went to a French culinary institute in Campbell and went to Las Vegas two years ago to study under Toba Garrett, one of the country’s top artists and educators in the field of cake decorating and design.
Over the years, Mendoza-Rios has gained a huge following of loyal customers who keep on coming back to her for wedding cakes or a variety of pastries. When it comes to baking, Mendoza-Rios has a simple yet time-trued philosophy.
“It’s all about baking from the heart,” she said. “I want people to experience the quality and taste of what real bakeries from 20 to 30 years had. We want to be that bakery that has that special old-time feel to it.”
The name of her bakery, Lighthouse 55, takes on special significance. A Christian, Mendoza-Rios envisioned her bakery as being a lighthouse in the community. Her dad’s favorite number is five and her husband was born in 1955.
Plus, Mendoza-Rios has always had an affinity for lighthouses.
With a rotating menu of 30 to 40 items, Lighthouse 55 has something to satisfy the person with even the sweetest sweet tooth. The burnt almond cake is the bakery’s top-selling item; however, the chicken salad sandwich also sells out fast, a result of the sizable lunch-hour crowd—many of whom are from the superior court—that come to Lighthouse 55 on a daily basis.
Making a sandwich wasn’t on the original menu, but Mendoza-Rios quickly realized it was needed for people who wanted more than just a pastry for lunch. Literally just a stone’s throw away from the superior court, Lighthouse 55’s location has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Mendoza-Rios initially had thoughts of opening up a bakery in downtown, but the price wasn’t right. After calling around on other potential sites, Mendoza-Rios got in contact with someone who told her of an empty spot across from the superior court.
Even though the bakery’s location connects with Third Street—which is one of the busier streets in Hollister from a traffic volume standpoint—drivers could easily miss it since it’s not part of a shopping center.
“I was questioning the location at first because there was nothing there,” Mendoza-Rios said. “But I called the owner of the building, Dante (Baines), and he says, ‘I want to help your dreams come true.’ The commitment he made, I’m so thankful for. He provided more than just rent space; he helped with refrigeration, tables and lots of other stuff. This has been a great location because with the courthouse, they’re sending people over here.”
Indeed, on a recent Tuesday morning, around 11 a.m., customers were still streaming into the bakery. Mendoza-Rios greeted each one with a smile, a natural outpouring of her affection for each one of them.
Speaking of love, Mendoza-Rios put an equal amount of time and her heart in the bakery’s décor as she does with her 12-hour workdays making cakes, pastries and sandwiches.
From the different shades of color on the inside wall to the picturesque paintings and faux lighthouses, Mendoza-Rios wanted to make her customers feel right at home.
And that’s exactly what she’s done.
“This is a big kitchen for me,” she said. “I’m welcoming people to my kitchen, and I’m cooking for them all day long. It’s a self-made dream.”
Having worked on her baking skills for the last 35 years, Mendoza-Rios started seeing visions of opening her own bakery in the last 18 years. However, due to a number of family and work commitments—Mendoza-Rios was a teacher in the Hollister School District for five years—the dream of opening her own bakery was put on the backburner.
But in November 2013, Mendoza-Rios knew it was now or never.
“I wasn’t getting any younger, and I knew I had to do it now while I still had the strength.” she said.
Mendoza-Rios also gained inner strength from her brother, Porfidio, who died at the age of 42 in 2005. The two were close, and Mendoza-Rios knew pursing her goal would make her brother proud.
“I knew I had to live out my dream,” she said.
