Today’s featured merchant on WhitlockAvenue.com is Gabriel’s Desserts just off the Square a few miles on Whitlock Avenue. Since 1989, Johnnie Gabriel has been in the business of baking. It could be said that Johnnie’s talent for cooking and baking is genetic, with one of America’s favorite cooks, Paula Deen, as her cousin. But Johnnie’s baking career did not begin as a conscious choice. She along with husband, Ed, began baking on nights and weekends to supplement their income during the tough times, a recession and college tuition bills can bring. Johnnie had watched her mother and grandmother bake desserts and cook meals for their family, and reasoned that she too could make enough cakes to make a difference.
In 1996, seven years after their baking venture began, Johnnie and Ed made the decision for Johnnie to leave her day job and open “Gabriel’s Desserts”. They started with 2 bakers, along with the talented team of Johnnie and Ed. Growth each year led Gabriel’s to hire professionally trained pastry cooks, cake decorators, bakers, a pastry chef and customer service personnel to meet demands for a made-to-order quality ingredient, freshly baked from scratch, homemade cake just like your grandmother used to have time to bake.
Since 2003, Gabriels has tripled their space and expanded their list of desserts and savory foods, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner six days a week. Today, a customer can dine in or take home gabriel’s freshly prepared food all from quality ingredients! It’s a family tradition!
Melding an American family tradition of homemade desserts and professionally trained staff has brought forth wedding and special occasion cakes, originally designed for each customer, and desserts for all occasions filling the bake list each week. Holiday bake lists overflow with home style, made from scratch cakes and pies that Johnnie and Ed used to bake at home. Cakes are shipped weekly to various parts of the USA and daily during the Holiday Seasons.
Chosen best of Atlanta 7 times by Atlanta magazine, Gabriels has been called “The Little Shop of Wonders.” You can also find some of our dessert recipes in cousin Paula Deen’s Desserts cookbook, “Cooking With Paula” magazine and on The Food Network’s web site found links to Paula’s various television shows. Also, you can enjoy some of Paula’s recipes when you dine in or pick up at Gabriels.
From Johnnie and Ed and the talented staff at Gabriel’s Desserts, ‘Thank You’ for your continued business and loyalty – you have made Gabriel’s a local favorite!
Visit Gabriel’s Desserts
