Vendor: Café Tres
Where to find it: At the City Park Farmers Market, which runs every Saturday until October 28. After that, stay tuned for pop-up events and direct ordering opportunities via Instagram @cafetresdnvr.
About the business: Café Tres was a newcomer to the City Park Farmers Market this year. Its bright blue tent has stood at the center of the bustling plaza all season long, beckoning pastry lovers in the crowd. Underneath, founder Michael Solis has been ever-present with a smile and friendly conversation for each person in line, often with a cafecito (a Cuban espresso that is as delightfully sweet as it is strong) in hand.
What stops most passersby, though, are the rows of glazed pastries behind the glass case, each filled with fruit, cream cheese or spiced meat under countless flaky layers. Solis makes all of these Cuban pastries, called pastelitos, by hand. You could say his background is in graphic design, which is where his career has been focused up until now. But his connection to baking goes back much further.
Solis is a third-generation Cuban American who grew up surrounded by bakers. When he was growing up in Miami, he says, there were bakeshops selling pastelitos and croquetas on every corner. "I never really saw anything that special or unique about it when I was young. It was always a part of my life," he says.
His own family opened one such shop when they immigrated to the United States. "My great-uncle [Alfredo] worked at a bakery in Cuba, and when they came to Miami in the ’60s, he and his wife took it upon themselves to teach the rest of the family how to bake," he explains. The original store was called Three Little Bakers, and it was located in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami. As other relatives (including Solis's grandparents) migrated over, they found a lifeline of employment at the bakery, too.
The opportunity wasn't just reserved for family members, though. There weren't as many Cuban businesses in the area as there are now, and Three Little Bakers served as a gathering place for those new to the country. "A lot of people coming from Cuba would make a stop at the bakery looking for work and trying to figure out how to make a life for themselves after arriving," Solis says. "They were usually offered work if available, or if not, at least a place to hang and help out until they figured things out."
For the rest of their lives, Solis says, his grandparents and great-uncle would unfailingly lend a hand to those who needed it. "You would always find people around [their] homes, trying to help out around the house or simply have a bed to sleep in until they got back on their feet," he recalls.
The original Three Little Bakers operated in Miami in the 1960s.
Michael Solis
A few years after opening it, the family moved the bakery more inland. By then, it was clear that Solis's aunt had a special knack for creating and decorating cakes, so the second iteration of the family business was named Three Little Cakes. "She's very, very artistic. She made a cake for the president and for movie openings and things like that," Solis notes. This was the shop where he fondly remembers spending his childhood, learning the family recipes and developing his baking skills. After almost fifty years in business, Solis's family ultimately closed the bakery during the economic downturn of 2008.
By the time the bakery closed, Solis was grown and already building a career in graphic design. He moved to Denver in 2014 for an advertising job and quickly noticed a lack of the cuisine he grew up with. "I tried to find Cuban coffee or pastries or croquettes or anything. Even trying to come across that was kind of tough," he recalls. "I didn't think at first, 'Oh, my God, we need to start a bakery out here,' but whenever I would go back home, it was munch heaven. The first thing I would do when I got off the plane was go to a bakery." Over time, the idea of a Colorado-based shop became a persistent tick in the back of Solis's mind.
Eventually, Solis mentioned the idea to his uncle and cousin, but he didn't have any luck persuading them to start a business with him. "I kind of put it on the back burner. I was doing good in my career, and I definitely didn't want to start a bakery by myself," he says. A few years later, his cousin called and asked if he was still interested in starting a shop. Solis enthusiastically agreed. He had never fully let go of the idea, and the reminder reignited his spark.
He started creating mood boards and pulling inspiration from his family's history as well as Cuban island culture to create different logos. Solis wanted to pay homage to the previous versions of his family's business in the name. "We wanted to keep the 'three' alive, and Café Tres was the third iteration of the bakery." Together, Solis and his cousin planned to revive the legacy that their grandparents had started.
But when it came time to quit their jobs and go full-in on their plan, Solis's cousin got cold feet and decided not to leave Miami. "He didn't end up moving out here, and I had already quit," laughs Solis. Luckily, he quickly picked up enough freelance work to support his new pastry venture. He started selling pastelitos at friends' parties and through direct ordering on Instagram in late 2022.
Before long, Wah Gwaan Brewing (which closed in January of this year) reached out to Solis about doing a pop-up to celebrate a new guava beer on tap. "It was the little nudge I needed," Solis says. "It went so well that I was like, man, this is great. I just want to do pop-ups all the time." He had monthly markets throughout the holiday season and into the new year, then started ramping up direct orders via Instagram messages in preparation for Café Tres's first season at the City Park Farmers Market.
Since then, Café Tres has hit its stride as more people become familiar with it. "It's been awesome. I think I've pretty much sold out every single weekend. I can't physically make any more, at least until I get help, so at least there's no food going to waste," he says. He still works as a graphic design contractor Monday through Thursday, and goes to his commissary kitchen in the evenings to prepare and laminate pastry dough for each week's market.
He still uses some of his family's recipes, too, but has refined them to better fit the Denver crowd. "Miami is a very hustle, hands-on type of city, and when I moved out here, it's much more of an artisanal sense," he remarks. "I think there's a different kind of appreciation for baked goods, which has inspired me in how I handle my dough. Instead of quickly laminating, I actually take my time and make sure I'm thinking through every little thing that goes into it."
On Fridays, Solis says, he spends most of the day and often all night baking pastelitos and frying croquettes so they'll be fresh. It's a hustle, but Solis doesn't let it get him down. "I feel like these sleepless nights will make a difference in the future," he says. Eventually, Solis would like to open a brick-and-mortar location, but he's not looking to create a full-on bakery. "There's a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff going on in any Latin bakery. There's always like a thousand different items," he explains. He wants to create a space where people can hang out and enjoy some treats or sandwiches on Cuban bread made in-house. Right now, he's just focused on making the best pastries he can.
"Especially now that I'm doing it by myself, I'm trying to concentrate on something that's not going to overwhelm me, and make sure I'm creating very good products," he notes. "I'd rather just do like ten pastelitos that I can interchange throughout the seasons."
His staples, which are always available, are pastelitos filled with guava and cream cheese or carne (spiced ground beef), as well as ham-filled croquettes. Cream cheese, coconut, almond, mango and holiday-spiced guava are also in the Café Tres rotation, depending on the season. Solis held a poll on Instagram to bring back fan favorites like ropa vieja (filled with slow-cooked, shredded beef) and jamón y queso (ham and cheese) pastelitos for the last City Park market of this season on October 28.
Once the farmers' market season ends, Solis plans to do pop-ups at least once a month. Other than visiting Café Tres at events, pastelito lovers can get their fix by messaging Café Tres directly on Instagram to place an order for local pickup and delivery during the weekends. "I want to keep moving forward. I don't want to lose any of the traction that I built," Solis says.
Bamber Ranch is a multi-generational farm in Lamar that has recently started producing sunflower-finished beef.
Bamber Ranch/Instagram
- Jaclyn Birkelund's family has been raising beef cattle for five generations on Bamber Ranch. Recently, they have begun feeding some of their cattle Colorado Mills sunflower meal, a no-waste product leftover from sunflower oil production. Chef Elise Wiggins of Cattivella (one of Westword's Top 100 Restaurants picks in 2022) is a recent convert, praising the superior "flavor and fat distribution" of the sunflower-finished beef. Customers can order the beef for local pickup and delivery online. If ordering isn't available in your area, reach out to Bamber Ranch directly for more options.
- Pumpkin spice might get all the attention this time of year, but apples are plentiful and delicious, too. Get a few different kinds to snack on at the Ela Family Farms stand. You can also try the Not Bad Apple Butter (made with apples from Topp Fruits) and stock up on a few fancy bottles of Haykin Family Cider (pro tip: Save one bottle to pair with your Thanksgiving meal).
- The South Pearl Street Farmers Market will be hosting a Kids' Halloween Parade on Sunday, October 29. Get your tote bags — and trick-or-treat baskets — ready.
