After five years spent popping up at farmers’ markets across Atlanta, Sugar Loaf Bakery & Café opened the doors to its brick-and-mortar in Reynoldstown last month. The shop takes its name from the hometown roots of its founding couple: Lindsay Berhane grew up on Sugarloaf Court in Virginia, and Nebi Berhane in Georgia, not far from Sugarloaf Parkway.
The story of Sugar Loaf’s founding, though, is more a tale of missed connections. The two first crossed paths in rehearsals while working as dancers on cruise ships bound for different destinations—Nebi to South America, and Lindsay to the Caribbean. Three years later, they ran into each other again at a bar in Chicago and realized they lived just a mile apart.
Chicago became a home base, but dance kept the couple moving; working in kitchens to support their careers as artists sent them through roles ranging from assistant BBQ pitmaster to Japanese robotoyaki cook to pastry sous chef. It was during those years—between rehearsals, tours, and restaurant shifts—that they first began experimenting with dishes that would later shape Sugar Loaf’s menu.
“I was working at a breakfast place that made terrible waffles, and I made it my mission to improve them while trying to figure out a biscuit recipe and learning about Liège waffles,” Nebi laughs. “I dove in thinking we could choose things that have had an impact on us culinarily and in our personal lives. We wanted to figure out how to build a menu around that.”
After a decade in Chicago and a pandemic-era stint in New York—where Nebi baked at Levain and Lindsay served as head pastry chef at Molly’s Cupcakes—the couple moved to Atlanta with a goal of finding homes for the recipes they’d been quietly developing. Farmers’ markets were a natural starting point.
“The growing season here was a big inspiration because it’s so long. We got into eating seasonally and locally when we were living in Chicago, and loved knowing the farmer’s markets in Atlanta could be year-round,” explains Lindsay, who also cites her work with the Chicago nonprofit Peterson Garden Project as a catalyst for the couple’s love of growing their own food.
Upon arriving in the heat, though, they soon discovered pastries were already popular, but biscuits weren’t. Nebi’s pursuit of perfection presented the perfect way to set themselves apart.
“Grant Park Farmers Market told us we could come in the winter as a hot food vendor, so we bought a 22-inch Blackstone griddle and learned how to use propane without being terrified of it,” laughs Nebi.
First came simple, warm biscuits, followed by creative combinations like pastrami with Cajun mustard and pepper jelly. The license, he says, was limiting—they weren’t able to cook from raw within the shared kitchen. Parbaking eggs to 80 percent completion allowed them to finish their products at the market while remaining within the rules.
Today, in their own kitchen, Sugar Loaf has no limits. Menu standouts include farmers’ market classics alongside items that pay homage to the couple’s Ethiopian and Albanian backgrounds. Breakfast, served until 10:45 a.m. on weekdays and 11:30 a.m. on weekends, features pastrami-egg-and-cheese biscuit sandwiches and a Balkan yogurt bowl with baklava granola and honey-soaked apricots.
Lunch begins at 11:15 a.m. on weekdays and 12 p.m. on weekends, offering an Ethiopian lentil salad as the side for your choice of a tuna melt, a “Popeye” sandwich with spring greens on sun-dried tomato spread, or the “Drive-In Burger”—an Oklahoma fried onion smashburger that Lindsay estimates accounts for 90 percent of lunchtime orders.
Fan favorites from the all-day pastry menu include Dabo biscuits with nigella and ajwain seed, plus Lil’ Nebis, a reimagination of the sweet Little Debbies Lindsay would nab from friends growing up. Dried fruit lends the dough a moisture similar to the raisin-puree-infused, “crazy-soft” Little Debbies. Instead of the chalky frosting of the original, Sugar Loaf uses a vanilla marshmallow cream that Lindsay swears holds its texture better when refrigerated.
“My mom refused to have any of those in our house,” Lindsay says. “Getting older, they don’t quite taste the same as when you were a kid. We wanted something that could be sneakily gluten-free and still incredibly delicious. It’s turned into its own kind of signature treat.”
Now, one month after their opening date, the Berhanes are tired. Finding bakers and knowing how many to hire presented initial growing pains; industry mentors had warned it would feel like a guessing game until the shop opened.
“We were busier on weekends than we expected, and immediately realized we didn’t have enough people,” says Lindsay. “Hiring and training takes a lot of time and energy, so to be doing that the first week of opening, we were pulling 18-hour days.”
Social media, word-of-mouth, and even reunions with old friends from their farmers’ market days have helped grow the tiny-but-mighty team now keeping up with a constantly busy café. Though Sugar Loaf is technically moving beyond its soft opening phase—Lindsay notes they’re still figuring things out day by day—guests seem unfazed, happily crowding around communal tables and snapping close-up shots of biscuits for Instagram.
As for what’s next, the Berhanes look forward to adding more patio seating and obtaining an alcohol license so guests can enjoy canned beers and wines outside as the weather warms. The menu is also expected to evolve as the team observes neighborhood preferences, with hopes of eventually reintroducing waffles.
“Going from two days a week to six is a big jump, but it’s worth it to feel so fulfilled,” says Lindsay. “Being able to walk food out to people and put it on a table in our dining room instead of in a bag at a farmer’s market—it’s a dream come true.”
Sugar Loaf, 780 Memorial Dr. SE, Atlanta, sugarloafatl.com
