Conversations with Brett Self

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brett Self.

Hi Brett, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My business partner (Patrice Robert) and I started in a shared kitchen facility in 2015. We started out packaging soups, sandwiches, and various other foods for wholesale to gourmet markets and businesses that provided meals to their workforces. We eventually began to concentrate on baking, primarily breads. The baking began gaining popularity so we started pursuing wholesale with the breads and marketing ourselves through farmers markets around the area. As of January 2026, Bakery to Go has wholesale accounts from Cornelia to Bainbridge with concentrations of clientele in Atlanta, Athens, Peachtree City, and Macon. We are farmers market regulars in the Piedmont Green Market, Peachtree City Market, Athens Farmers Market, and Poplar Street Farmers Market in Macon. In April B2G is scheduled to begin in the new Market in the Park by the Grant Park Conservancy.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If starting a small business is ever smooth, I would imagine it is rather rare! As with most small businesses, funding and establishing name recognition were two of our biggest challenges in the beginning. The shared kitchen facility was a great place to start on a tight budget and social media is a great help in the name recognition battle, because it is a “fight” that never ends!

As we began to grow, labor became the major struggle. Finding folks with work ethic and ambition are the key. Training takes care of itself in a lot of ways once you have people with drive because a determined individual is a powerful thing!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Brett Self is a North Carolina native and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. He began his career cooking before walking into Ollie’s Bakery in Winston Salem, NC. Shortly after introducing himself to owner Gordon Sparber, he started working there part time. From there, Self’s experience includes Stone Hearth Bakery in Hickory, NC, his first venture as a bakery owner. Later he would hold baking positions in Austin Creek Baking Co. in Hatteras, NC; the Sanctuary Hotel just outside Charleston, SC; and Alon’s Bakery which brought him to Georgia.

Patrice Robert is a native of Nice, France and began his professional career in food under his brother-in-law who was a master chef in Paris. While also having professional training in French antiques and woodworking, Patrice actually came to the US as an antique dealer. He eventually found his way back to food by opening a restaurant with his wife in Westport, CT. After deciding to close the restaurant, Patrice and his wife moved to Asheville, NC where he stayed in the restaurant industry. Later, after moving to Atlanta, began working at Highland Bakery.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
Brett–Gathering at my grandmother’s for Christmas Eve. It was a gathering of friends and family with an over abundance of cake, cookies, and candy…all scratch made.

Patrice–When I was 12 years old I met Salvator Dali at a exposition in the Southwest of France and the master asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I told him I wanted to design. His response was “think about something else or you will be miserable because the world will never be what you envision”.

Pricing:

• Most breads at farmers markets $7.00
• Croissant cinnamon rolls $5.00
• Sourdough bagel 6-pk. $9.00

Contact Info:

• Website: https://b2ginc.com
• Instagram: @bakery_to_go_inc
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/B2Ginc

Image Credits
Stephen Cook, Little Guide Macon