Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmin Willis.
Jasmin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It all started my senior year at The University of Georgia. I was studying Advertising and in my final semester, I decided I did not want to go into the advertising world like I had thought. I decided then that I wanted to open my own bakery one day. Two weeks after graduating from UGA, I was at Le Cordon Bleu (Tucker, GA) and I was enrolled in their Baking and Patisserie certificate program. After nine months of school, I made my way into the big, bad culinary world where I landed a job with the Ford Fry Restuarant, St. Cecilia. Here I began working under Chrysta Poulos (The Executive Pastry Chef for all of Ford Fry’s restaurants). I owe all of who I am today to Chrysta Poulos and Jenn Robbins. Two amazing women chefs who taught me about cooking and leading in this industry.
After about nine months at St. Cecilia I was granted a promotion to Pastry Lead and given the challenge of opening Marcel in Midtown. After another six months, I was asked to be part of the team that started the Ford Fry Commissary. Another couple of years in pastry and I decided to try my hand at savory cooking and started as Lead Line Cook at Beetlecat. It was here that I decided it was time to revisit my original idea of opening a bakery but by this time I had grown in my culinary skills and wanted to develop a breakfast boutique that embodied all the standards and values I had learned in the Atlanta dining scene. Fast forward through two years of working with the city, contractors, and catering, Gracious Plenty opened it’s doors July 25, 2018!
Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t know if any day is smooth in the restaurant world, haha but this has definitely been my roughest journey so far. From having a lot of doubt thrown my way by people I respect, to being a women in a man’s world, to opening a restaurant with my fiance, it has all been hard. It is still hard and it probably always will be because even when I get comfortable in the place, I am in now, I will push the envelope in another direction!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Gracious Plenty Bakery & Breakfast – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Gracious Plenty is a breakfast boutique/bakery. When you dine with us, you can find staples such as our HUGE buttermilk biscuit (we won Best Brunch Bite with Star 94.1 for our pimento cheese biscuit!), crispy hash browns and artisanal grits. We also have other favorites like Steak and Eggs and our Avocado Toast. Although the food is simple, the flavors are what shines through because we use all local and seasonal ingredients (besides our bananas and avocados). Our house jam changes with the seasons, our housemade hot sauce changes depending on what peppers the farmers bring us and the add-ons then you can add to any breakfast change to whatever we get from our community.
Although we are known for our food (biscuits, hash browns, almond cake, monkey bread, biscones, hot sauce), what really makes GP stand out how you feel when you are here. The design is a wide-open kitchen so there is very little divide. Because of this, it feels like you are at a friends house watching them make you breakfast. On top of design, our staff is the best!!! We know everyone names, orders, and families. We genuinely love what we do and who we serve! We are also very active in our community. We do monthly projects to clean-up the local areas, streets, and farms and also have special events to help causes dear to our hearts!
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love our city so much for its diversity! You have the opportunity to meet so many people from so many backgrounds with all different levels of knowledge.
I hate the heat. I work in a kitchen so standing next to 400-degree ovens when it’s 100% humid and hot in Atlanta is brutal!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1164 Canton Street
Roswell, GA 30075 - Website: graciousplentybb.com
- Phone: 6788783105
- Email: graciousplentybb@gmail.com
- Instagram: graciousplentybb
- Facebook: graciousplentybb
- Yelp: Gracious Plenty Bakery & Breakfast
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
