CAO Bakery Expands From Miami Into Orlando With First Location

Courtesy of Jessica Battisti

The Cuban-American owned brand—founded by Tony Cao, the grandson of Miami’s famed Vicky Bakery owner Antonio Cao—has expanded across Florida, with 21 locations and counting. The new Winter Springs location marks the first in the Central Florida area.

Located at 855 E State Rd., this franchise is managed by the Hialeah-raised, Cuban-American entrepreneurs and couple Ruben and Summer Paneque. Taking a break from their typical real estate and inspection business ventures, the couple is pursuing something new: a bakery built on family and community.

The now-Oviedo residents first moved to Seminole County in 2021. They said they were attracted to its small town feel and felt it was a safer community to raise their family of four.

“I was getting tired of feeling like I was going to war every morning,” Ruben said.

Courtesy of Jessica Battisti

The Paneques are among the many southern Floridians making the move to the greater Orlando area. In 2025, the most popular move route within Florida was Miami to Orlando, in which .85 percent of the state’s overall move traffic consisted of southern Floridians making the trip north, according to data from MoveBuddha.

Summer said her favorite part of bringing CAO Bakery to Central Florida has been meeting the needs of other former south Floridians—providing a sense of familiarity and comfort.

“[The customers] always say, ‘I used to tell my mom to bring me pastelitos from Miami but now we don’t have to, now we come here,’” Summer said. “We’ve had people drive almost an hour when they’ve heard about us, just because they’re from Miami. They know the products and they know the quality of it.”

The bakery offers signature cafecitos, breakfast, lunch and dinner, from the Bacon, Egg and Queso breakfast sandwich (Summer’s recommendation) to classics like ropa vieja and Medianoche and Cubano sandwiches. Classic pastelitos are also showstoppers: from fresh, crispy croquetas to tequeños and guava and cheese pastelitos. For sweet treat recommendations, Ruben (or as he said, “his five year old self”) suggests la señorita—a creamy custard layered between flaky puff pastry, topped with chocolate, powdered sugar or dulce de leche.

For Ruben, opening a bakery is personal. His childhood memories of going to his local bakery with his father every weekend morning was a major motivator for the passion project.

Courtesy of CAO Bakery & Cafe

“It was just something that was always inside of me and but I knew that in Miami was going to be very difficult with the competition,” Ruben said. “The cost of rent, cost of goods, it’s just insane and being up here gave me the opportunity to actually get into it.”

Ruben’s father, a Cuban exile from Bayamo, died in 2015. Following the revolution, his father was only 16 when he arrived in Chicago, living in the back of a car and a wine cellar until moving to South Florida, where he worked as a computer programmer until he retired.

Ruben said he got his entrepreneurial spirit from his father, though he believes he was never willing to take any financial risks because of what he went through in Cuba.

“I think that’s probably why I keep trying to push more and more to show that ‘hey, you did good with me,’” Ruben said. “I was a troublemaker so for him to see me climb out of that, I think, is huge.”

But transitioning from inspections to bakery operations hasn’t necessarily been easy for the couple, calling it “a totally different animal.” Being high school friends with Tony Cao, Ruben said he trusted not only Cao but his business model—not to mention he found out Cao’s brother is married to his cousin. Big city, small world.

“That really just made it even more comfortable,” Ruben said. “Tony is a very, very good person. He’s good hearted, he’s humble, he’s very understanding—he’s not the typical business person.”

When asked if there are any intentions for more CAO Bakery expansions in the greater Orlando area, the Paneques wouldn’t give too many details—but Ruben said they’re currently working on a silent deal that he said would be “shaking hands with a major player in the state.”

As for in-house operations, the couple—who first met at Summer’s uncle’s inspection company when they were 21—said their favorite part of working together has been building together and joking around in the process.

Summer said: “To go through the trenches and see something come out on the other side—it’s not always easy, but it’s really cool to laugh through those experiences.”