Highland Park’s vibrant restaurant scene just got a new contender in the form of Santa Canela, a Mexican bakery and coffee shop serving up modern and upscale twists on classic panaderia fare.
Founder and pastry chef Ellen Ramos got her start in the DTLA restaurant scene, famously serving LA-shaped churros at Cha Cha Cha before moving onto other fine dining destinations downtown like Redbird. At Santa Canela, Ramos embraces her Mexican and El Salvadoran roots alongside her childhood memories in El Sereno with pastries inspired by the panaderias of LA and Mexico City.
Offerings vary by day and include both sweet and savory delights, like potato soyrizo croissants, chicken tinga tarts, and sandwiches on house-made focaccia. You’ll find classic pan dulce like conchas with their hardened sugar glaze carved into seashell patterns, but Santa Canela’s signature pastry is a concha with a smooth vanilla-cinnamon top with stronger resemblance to a large scone. This is because the center is bursting with burnt vanilla bean cream, which makes for a pleasant and filling surprise.
Ramos incorporates inventive flavors like maple and yuzu, and some days you’ll find concha-croissant mash-ups alongside delicate panques. Spiral cinnamon rolls with a hefty sprinkling of cinnamon sugar and financiers featuring the delicacies of LA and Mexico populate the tall glass display cases near the coffee counter. Rather than your typical bakery case setup you see throughout the U.S. where what you see in the case is what you can order, Santa Canela’s wall-side bakery display is more common in Mexico where you can see the day’s offerings behind bookshelf-style glass then order at the counter where your pastry comes off a fresh bakery tray.
You can see what’s being baked for the day as you wait for your latte or caffe de olla, among other traditional drinks served at Mexican bakeries with a modern twist.
Santa Canela is located on 5601 North Figueroa Street in Highland Park and is open from 9AM to 4PM Wednesday through Sunday.
