Porto's Bakery & Cafe has been teasing a move into the Inland Empire, and eagle-eyed fans may have already spotted where. City of Ontario planning records show an 8.6-acre site at the southwest corner of Archibald Avenue and Inland Empire Boulevard tied to applicants connected to the Burbank-based bakery chain, with a public reveal promised for Tuesday.
A Social Media Tease Turns Into a Paper Trail
The hints started on social media, where a Porto's video asked viewers to guess the next city for a new location and suggested the Inland Empire could use a sweet new neighbor, according to the Daily Bulletin. The company has not disclosed the proposed location itself, but the outlet's review of Ontario Development Advisory Board records found the matter was considered in August and September of this year. Porto's bakery headquarters answered several calls from the paper with recordings rather than comment, per the same account.
The site under consideration sits near Ontario International Airport and the 10 Freeway.
Familiar Names Behind the Filing
The project applicants listed in the Ontario filing include Raul Porto and Leo Prats, the station's report notes. Raul Porto serves as chief executive officer of Porto's Bakery & Cafe and is the son of founder Raul Porto Sr., while Prats is affiliated with Prats Inc. Architecture & Construction, a firm that has designed and built several Porto's locations. Porto's has not provided further details about the Ontario project.
Raul Porto Sr. died in May 2024 at age 92, nearly five years after his wife and co-founder Rosa Porto died at age 89 in December 2019, as Hoodline reported at the time. The couple, Cuban immigrants, founded Porto's Bakery in Echo Park in 1976, and Rosa Porto had originally baked out of her kitchen in Manzanillo, Cuba, hiding tools from neighbors during police raids before the family was permitted to leave for Los Angeles in 1971, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Scale of an Established SoCal Institution
Today Porto's operates six locations across Los Angeles and Orange counties, and it's also developing a seventh near the gates of Disneyland in Anaheim, a project first announced in 2022 with construction beginning in December 2025, per the Daily Bulletin's reporting. That Downtown Disney site will mark the chain's first location with sit-down table service and a full bar alongside its standard bakery counter, according to MagicTable. To make room for it, construction crews demolished the former La Brea Bakery structure and two 71-year-old ticket booths that had stood on Disneyland's Esplanade since 1955, as reported by the Times of India.
Each Porto's location combines a bakery section for takeout cakes and tarts, a quick-service counter offering sandwiches, salads, soups and breakfast, and a coffee bar for hot and cold drinks and pastries, per the Daily Bulletin. That combination has made the chain enormously popular: Porto's serves roughly 2 million customers a month across its Southern California locations and employs more than 2,200 staff, according to SFGATE. The chain's West Covina store, which opened in 2019 as its fifth location and remains its closest to the Inland Empire, spans 22,000 square feet, SFGATE also reported.
The Trade-Off: Popularity Means Crowds
That popularity comes with a well-documented downside. Some Porto's locations see waits of 10 to 20 minutes even during off-peak periods, according to the Daily Bulletin, a reflection of a brand that in 2016 landed the No. 1 spot on Yelp's list of the Top 100 Places to Eat in the US, driven largely by customer reviews at its Burbank location, per The Downey Patriot.
Cars have circled the parking lot at Porto's West Covina location. Managing traffic flow could be a concern for Ontario planners if the project moves forward.
For now, Porto's has kept the Inland Empire guessing. The company's social media tease and the paper trail at Ontario City Hall point in the same direction, but official confirmation — and any detail on timing or design — is expected with Tuesday's promised reveal.
