A potato sourdough starter passed down from a grandmother named Joann now anchors the menu at a small bakery on Cuernavaca Drive in Westlake, where owner Lily Swartz has turned a childhood dream into cinnamon rolls, kolaches, and breakfast tacos with homemade tortillas. JoJo's Bakery opened in March 2025 at 1104 N. Cuernavaca Drive, and Swartz says she has wanted to run a bakery since she was 10 years old.
Swartz grew up in the Westlake neighborhood and has lived in the Cuernavaca community near the bakery for most of her life, according to Community Impact. She worked at bakeries during summer breaks in high school, then built professional experience at the South Congress Hotel and the Commodore Perry Estate before opening her own shop. That hands-on résumé sits alongside formal training: Swartz attended the Culinary Institute of America, and according to Edible Austin, she also sharpened her skills at La Pâtisserie in Austin and Bittersweet Pastry Shop in Chicago before coming home to open the Westlake location.
A Starter Dough With Deep Roots
The bakery's name and its dough both trace back to the same person: Swartz's grandmother, Joann, whom the family called JoJo. JoJo's Bakery is named after her, and the potato sourdough starter used throughout the menu comes from a recipe Swartz's grandmother handed down, per the seed reporting from Community Impact. Edible Austin's reporting adds that this starter, branded as “JoJo Bread,” serves as the base for the bakery's cinnamon rolls, kolaches, and sandwich loaves, with many of the shop's baked goods relying on that same dough.
Swartz learned to cook alongside her grandmother growing up, and she has said cinnamon rolls are one of the bakery's most popular items. The bakery also emphasizes locally and sustainably sourced ingredients, using pasture-raised eggs, nitrate-free proteins, and seasonal produce across a menu that includes pancakes, sandwiches, salads, and seasonal kolaches.
A Family Affair, For Better And Worse
JoJo's Bakery is very much a family operation. Swartz's cousin, mother, and brother all work at the shop, and Swartz herself took part in most of the bakery's build-out. She has been candid about what that means day to day, telling Community Impact that working with family is both the most special and the hardest part of running the business.
Beyond the walk-in counter, the bakery has built out a savory side of the business as well. Chef Sam Painter was brought on to design the bakery's lunch menu when the business opened, according to Community Impact's earlier coverage. JoJo's has also developed a custom cake program for weddings and special events, using Italian buttercream frosting, non-hydrogenated oils, and seasonally rotating local organic produce, per a listing on Zola. For offices and larger gatherings, the bakery offers catering packages through Grubhub, including 10-pack breakfast taco boxes with house hot sauces, pastry dozen boxes, and salad platters serving up to 16 people, according to a Grubhub listing for the business.
Part Of A Broader Westlake Boom
JoJo's sits on a stretch of Cuernavaca Drive alongside neighborhood staples Civil Goat Coffee Co. and Patrizi's Italian restaurant, placing it firmly within an established local dining corridor. The bakery is open Wednesday through Sunday, with hours running from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, and it stays closed Mondays and Tuesdays, according to a listing from the Westlake Chamber of Commerce.
The bakery's launch was part of a larger wave of commercial activity in the area — the Lake Travis-Westlake region saw 18 new retail, venue, and dining businesses open in mid-2025, per Community Impact's business tracking. That growth has unfolded in a neighborhood where home values in the Cuernavaca zip code range from roughly $750,000 for inland properties to more than $4 million for lakefront homes, and where the area is served by Eanes Independent School District, ranked the top school district in Texas and seventh nationally on Niche's 2026 rankings.
For now, Swartz says she hopes JoJo's Bakery will keep growing in the years ahead, building on the foundation of her grandmother's starter dough and the childhood dream that started it all.
