Meet Rasheeda Johnson of Candied Treats

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rasheeda Johnson.

Rasheeda, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Started out as a waitress at the world-famous Nikki’s VIP, within a year I became the door girl and Head waitress. Michael Child’s took a favor in me because I brought a lot of money to the club and moved me to his upper echelon club The Gentleman’s Club which took the nickname The G.C, there I was the door girl, then became the VIP hostess. Shortly there after I became the VIP bartender after my late best friend Valerie had to go out of town and she ended up giving me her shifts, from there I fell in love with being a bartender! After the closing of both clubs, I took a break from the clubs for a year then returned back into the industry and waitressed at Magic City. Magic City is where I met some of my high profile customers that I still have a great friendship with to this day, I’m sure you’ve heard the stories, those where some great times.

I left Magic City after two years and got into banking for a couple of years. Missing the club life a good friend of mine hired me as a bartender at Club Babes where my rise up the ladder was pretty fast. I went from bartending, Bar Manager to Assistant Manager, where I stayed for almost five years. My last two years at Babes I started venturing out doing some hosting at clubs, began a hookah business and even started managing an Artist “Block Boy Spanky” which introduced me into a whole new world and that’s how I met my now business partner Tracye Big Deal. We formed a business bond and kept each other in the loop with different ventures and that’s how Candied Treats was born. It started out as a few orders here and there, then people started buzzing about us and we took off. Nine months later we have shipped to 9 states so far, we have delivered to every city in Georgia, we offer online shopping, delivery and catering. You can also find some of our Treats in Cumberland Mall. By the end of 2019 we will be opening our own location. Im personally excited that I am working on a cookbook “Candied and Catered”. We had no idea that we’d be here today.

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?
The road has been bumpy with a lot of roadblocks but God has been guided us through this journey. For myself I just remain focus and concentrate on continuing to build the Candied Treats brand. Because I’m the person behind the scene it’s a little bit easier for me, I’m pretty much in front of the computer all day making deals, marketing, handling the social media platforms and trying to keep coming up with ways to keep our customers interested, happy and informed. There were those days we had to deal with a lot negativity and hate, that was a struggle for us in the beginning but we just kept pushing and remained professional, that’s been my biggest motto through all of this. Being graceful, respectful and professional will get you a long way. I truly love what Candied Treats has become, we have been truly blessed I must say.

Candied Treats – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Candied Treats is a new fun innovative way of enjoying your favorite fruit, snacks and desserts. We just add a little twist to it. We started out making Caramel & Pecan grapes and frozen flavored grapes then this trend hit with the Jolly Rancher grapes, that started from a Black-Owned business on the Westside of Atlanta. Our customers started requesting us to make them but we wanted to set ourselves apart and create our own lane so we added different fruit with the same concept but that just wasn’t good enough for me so I created the Pineapple Pops and then the Cotton Candy grapes which is grapes wrapped in Cotton Candy.

As our wheels continued to turn more Treats were created and added to our menu.There just isn’t just one thing we specialize in cause we take everything and add the Candied Treats twist to it and make it our own. I’m big on branding hence why I coined myself “RasheedaTheBrand” so I’m really proud of the brands we’ve started within the Candied Treats brand, we have our own Candy “Golly Jolly”, we have two signature Treats “Pineapple Pops” and “Cotton Candy Grapes” that our customers LOVE. All these fun treats have taken us further than we ever imagined. What sets us apart, Grace, Respect, Professionalism, Drive and over 35 years of Pure Hustle between the two us…it’s the Candied Way.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
This journey has given me so many found moments, there isn’t just one. I’m nowhere near my most proudest moment just yet but it’s near and when it comes it will definitely be a feeling of completeness, that’s how I’ll know.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.candiedtreatsatlanta.com
• Phone: 404-907-6804
• Email: candiedtreatsatl@gmail.com
• Instagram: @candiedtreats_
• Facebook: @candiedtreatsatl_
• Twitter: @CandiedTreats
• Yelp: http://yelp.to/qTKq/txxgWQ2AXZ

Image Credit:
Rasheeda J & Tracye Big Deal

Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.