Nena Postreria: Inspired by family and tradition

Hola, my name is Diana Zamora and I am the chef owner of Nena Postreria, a pastry concept inspired by my childhood, family, and traditions. I’m incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to take the concept from pop-up to a permanent brick and mortar pastry shop in East Dallas.

About the inspiration:

The spark that began it all was my mother, Reyna Margarita. Born as the middle child, she had two older brothers and two younger brothers who affectionately gave her the nickname “Nena”, which means little girl in Spanish. She grew up on a coffee plantation and began cooking at a very young age with my grandmother. Growing up, my sister and I never had a store bought birthday cake and my mom made sure that she continued the tradition by making all of my own daughters’ cakes, school bake sale items, after school cookies, etc. Baking was always a hobby for her, but after she retired from her career in accounting, she decided to start her own cottage bakery and developed quite the following at local farmer’s markets. She was particularly known for her cinnamon bread and fresh fruit filled empanadas. But it wasn't just her pastries that her regulars came back for, it was her kindness and conversations about life, and her inability to resist giving a small child a free cookie just to see the look of happiness on their little face. When she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2019, I became her caretaker. During the long nights at the hospital and throughout her chemo treatments we would sit and talk for hours about everything, but always in great length about food in particular - her recipes and techniques, her favorite childhood flavors, new ideas for something she might want to try to make if she had a little energy. I wrote everything down in as much detail as possible. She passed in September of 2022. Nena Postreria is my tribute to her.

About the me:

I’m a self taught pastry chef with a fondness for imparting nostalgic elements to my desserts that are often rooted in my Latino culture. I’d like to think of myself as the Selena of the local culinary scene. From the carrot cake at Encina, to Jose’s elote flan, to black sesame paletas at Cry Wolf, I’ve been able to share my culture and creations with Dallas diners.

In recent years, I’ve earned awards and praise from the media .

The goal:

Nena Postreria will be opening in East Dallas at 4219 Bryan Street. So far this project has been 100% self funded. We are currently in the middle of construction and the goal is to be open by Christmas 2023. This ambitious plan brings us to our fundraising campaign. We need your support to finish the buildout.

Nena Postreria will be a minority women-led and -operated pastry shop brimming with signature sweets, gansitos, pan dulce, late night weekend desserts, and more. In addition to retail production, we will continue wholesale production for our current DFW clients, host community-oriented events, cooking classes, visiting chefs, private dinners and double up as an incubator space for up-and-coming chefs to host pop-ups.

And to thank you for your generosity, we've come up with some pretty cool tokens of our appreciation...

$25 Donation: Gansito Gang stickers and digital recipe

$50 Donation: Gansito Gang t-shirt

$75 Donation: Assorted Gansito 12-pack

$100 Donation: Gansito 12-pack + 1 t-shirt

$500 Donation (first 100): 10-inch custom cake + 1 saturday morning box

$1,000 Donation (first 25): saturday morning brunch box subscription for 2 weeks

$2,500 Donation (first 2): 4 seats at first chefs dinner/pop-up in shop

$5,000 Donation (first 4): book a whole group class for 8 ppl

$10,000 Donation: Your own menu item based on your favorite childhood memory/dessert

$25,000 Donation: I, Diana Zamora, will get donor's name tattooed on me.

Every donation brings us closer to finishing building our mighty little shop. We are grateful for all the support we have received throughout the years as a pop up concept and are excited to have your help to continue to grow and reach our full potential.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your continued encouragement.

~Diana and the Nena Postreria squad