Porto’s Bakery and Cafe

On our list of the best dessert spots in Los Angeles.

Rosa Porto began baking cakes secretly in 1960s Cuba, where private enterprise was illegal, hiding her equipment from raids by neighbors and police. She and her family reached Los Angeles in 1971 and opened a 300-square-foot bakery in Echo Park in 1976, the first of what's grown into a chain producing more than half a million potato balls and over a million cheese rolls a month. Cheese rolls, crisp potato balls, guava pastries and thick Cuban sandwiches still follow the same recipes at the counter here, sold by the piece or the dozen, with cakes made to order.