‘Ever dream of owning an award-winning bakery?’ El Paso’s Bella Cora Bakery up for sale

EL PASO, Texas-- "Ever dream of owning an award-winning bakery?"
Those were the words written on a Facebook post that came as a shock to many Bella Cora Bakery fans.

Jonathan Bowden is the owner and pastry chef at Bella Cora Bakery. He has been baking sweets in the Borderland for more than 20 years now.

"I first became interested in baking when I was 15 years old. I was looking through some magazines in a classroom in school and I thought, 'oh this looks cool I wanna see if I can make this stuff at home.' So, I started doing that," said Bowden, who first began baking good from his own home.

"It first started in my house. After I left the Greenery, I wanted to keep making food for people so I decided to start selling things at fairs and stuff . Then, I eventually started selling baked goods to restaurants, and eventually we were able to open the first location in the west side," said Bowden.

Bella Cora Bakery has been an El Paso favorite for more than a decade -
With locations in west and east El Paso, the Borderland welcomed Bowden and his pastries with open arms.

"El Paso's really embraced us as a local business and we've really appreciated that," said Bowden.

Making the decision to sell something he spent a decade of his life building was bittersweet.

"I came to the conclusion that I wanted to learn what the Bible teaches and be able to learn and teach that to others, and I wanted to do that more than I wanted to do this," said Bowden.

He posted the news that his bakery would be up for sale on Bella Cora's Facebook page and the responses were full of mixed emotions.

"Pretty overwhelmingly positive. Some people said 2020 is turning out to be the worst year ever," joked Bowden.

Since the post, he has received over a dozen responses from potential buyers. For Bowden, finding the best buyer is key because his main desire is for his employees to continue working.

"It is not me that makes everything, it is the staff and almost all of our staff has been born and trained in El Paso and Juarez. So, they’re learning from me, I admit, but they’re choosing to do the work themselves. They’re choosing to become good at it. I may be the architect of it, but they're the workers who made everything beautiful," said Bowden.

Although he is leaving behind something he's passionate about, he's happy to be following another dream of his: Attending seminary to pursue full time Christian ministry.

"After that it's whatever Jesus wants me to do. I would like to be a pastor or preacher. I'm open to possibilities."

And when the time comes to pass the pastry brush, Bowden is sure he'll shed a few tears.

"I told my wife I'm not gonna be sad until it happens and then I'm gonna be really sad and she said, 'oh yea you're gonna cry so much.' It's a really emotional thing to think about giving this up and walking away from it," said Bowden.

Bella Cora Bakery will still remain open for business throughout the rest of the year.

Bowden's lease with the bakery will be up in December. If he is able to find a buyer for the bakery, then Bella Cora will continue to operate at both locations.

If no buyer is found, Bowden will have to close up shop. But he is hopeful that he will find someone to keep Bella Cora Bakery up and running even after this year.

“We’ve received already over a dozen responses and requests saying they want to meet so that’s fantastic,” he concluded.