Today we’d like to introduce you to Alisa Barry.
Alisa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I feel in love with café culture while studying in Spain. After graduating from college, I moved to San Francisco and Berkley, CA to study and practice the culinary arts. After living and working in California for seven years, I head back south. I thought I would just be passing through. I loved the slower pace and reconnecting with family and friends, both old and new. To make money, I made and hand-delivered sandwiches and salads out of basket in various neighborhoods. And then I opened a lunch time café, inspired by my days at Alice Water’s Café Fanny. I would buy all the produce from the back of the pick-up truck. Blue Moon was the only organic farmer in Atlanta at the time, Part of the fun was figuring out what I was going to make with what I had on hand. Deliberate improvisation. It’s still how I love to cook today. My customers at the café always asked if they could take home some of the ingredients from the café, so I started bottling ingredients. And then a friend asked me to share a booth with them at the Atlanta Gift show, and a wholesale artisan food business was born. Bella Cucina Artful Food just celebrated our 25th year!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha ha! More like the road less traveled! I’m an artist at heart, so experimentation and exploration are how I like to do things. It’s been like an unfolding mystery, a beautiful discovery. And there have been untended detours and disappointments. Over the course of 25 years, adversity is inevitable. Passion, purpose and perseverance have helped me make it thought the difficult times. I’ve learned a lot about people, how to be a better person and business woman. Adversity isn’t easy, but if you pay attention to the lessons, there is beauty on the other side.
Bella Cucina – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Bella Cucina means beautiful food. We are an artisan food business and lifestyle brand; we are best known for our ALL NATURAL pantry line of products from antipasti appetizers to dolci desserts. Our Artichoke Lemon Pesto is our best selling product most people will recognize and tell me they love. As a producer, it presents a challenge, as we make every product by hand in small batches and label every jar by hand. This is what makes our product exceptional and our packaging beautiful. I am most proud of the fact that we aren’t just selling products. Our mission is to bring more beauty into the world. Food as art, eating as an artful experience. It’s not just what you eat, but how you eat. Even the most mundane act, like cooking and eating, can be elevated to an art. Through our products and our places, like our storeXstudio in Buckhead, we hope to inspire others to enhance the way they live their lives through the art of food.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Devotion.
Contact Info:
- Address: 270 Buckhead Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30305 - Website: www.bellacucina.com
- Phone: 678,539.8442
- Email: shop@bellacucina.com
- Instagram: @shopbellacucina
- Facebook: Bellacucina
- Twitter: bellacucian
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