Today we’d like to introduce you to Toula Argentis.
Toula, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I spent about 20 years working in the corporate world in Canada, the U.S., and France. I reached the top tier as a CFO, but wasn’t happy. I wanted to make a difference in the world, to help people.
Being of Greek descent, I grew up cooking and baking Greek foods before dabbling in recipes of other cultures. I fell in love with the art of creating good food, and soon realized its power. I truly believed good food could make someone’s life better. And then, I became a mother. My children were born with food sensitivities, including sensitivity to gluten. Finding the gluten-free market limited, I rose to the challenge of trying to bake gluten free food that tasted good and that my children and I could eat.
With patience, support, and experimentation, I created desserts and breads that my children could eat, and love to share with their friends.
The love of food, the goal of making a difference in people’s lives through food, and the desire to include my children in this life journey, led me to start my own gluten-free bakery. I began at a shared facility, and started by selling my products at farmers’ markets. After two and half years, I opened my first retail store in Downtown Alpharetta and began selling to the general public as well as wholesale markets.
I love to see people happy. They come to the store and tell us their life story, their journey and how they got to our store and why they like what we do and how it has helped them in their life. What could be better than that?
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Not a smooth road. Many personal challenges and losses. Opening up a bakery without prior experience and without a life partner is difficult. However, I have learned through the process.
I now trust my gut feeling when it comes to people, and choices I make at the bakery.
We have had to redefine our goals based on customer demands and expectations.
I have learned over the years that I cannot make everyone happy.
Because we are a small company I have had to wear many hats. My time is stretched very thin; so I have learned to be as efficient as possible and to continuously ask myself if a task can wait until tomorrow or if it needs to be done right away.
I set priorities daily and I update them daily. In order to survive you need to keep moving, thinking and planning for the next quarter, next year, next 5 years. You need to keep looking ahead every day and ask what will make my customers come back for more.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am the owner and founder of this company. I have created the majority of our recipes.
My specialty is taking regular recipes over the years and transforming them into gluten free, wheat free, soy free and dairy free recipes that taste great and look amazing.
My children told me years ago when I first started experimenting that I create chemistry projects with each recipe.
Baking is an art and a chemistry project at the same time!
I love working with people, especially children. We have just started our cooking and baking classes and they sell out! We made pizza baked on stone this past week; our next class in September will be for baking cupcakes!
We cater to different niche markets which include Vegans, customers that follow the Paleo Diet (like myself); these groups are usually the Cross Fit athletes, regular body builders, health and wellness enthusiasts, patients that have been put on these diets for health reasons; of course, we cater to the Gluten Free/Wheat Free market.
I am proud to be able to cater to all these types of diets and meet our customers’ expectations.
When customers come to our bakery and find out that everything we have is Gluten Free, they are bewildered, flabbergasted, or shocked.
We offer a great variety of desserts, breads, and savory items that they cannot find anywhere else. For that we are proud. We add no additives, or preservatives. We use non-GMO ingredients and over 80% of ingredients are organic.
This is what sets us apart from others, plus the fact that we make all items fresh at our bakery. Customers do not have to settle for frozen foods any longer!
What were you like growing up?
I was a very shy young girl. My parents are of Greek heritage; therefore, my mother tongue is Greek; I only learned English when I was 5 years old and then French around the age of 6.
I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
I loved to read and play with my dolls as I was growing up. I liked to also write stories. I still do. I do plan on publishing a children’s book soon.
As I got older, I started following a more regimented exercise program with weight training, due to a back injury. I have not stopped exercising since my late teens. Aside from weight training, I love to do yoga, especially on the beach; I love to run on the beach on early mornings, I love to walk with my dog, Bentley, and I love to read poetry and classic books.
Contact Info:
- Address: 42 Milton Ave, Suite B, Alpharetta, GA 30009
- Website: www.2bwhole.net
- Phone: 470-395-5248
- Email: toula@2bwhole.net
- Instagram: 2bwholegfbakery
- Facebook: 2bWholeBakery
- Twitter: 2bWholeBakery
- Yelp: 2B Whole Bakery
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.
