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Business & Tech

Family Affair at Bill Rhodes Bakery

The bakery is a place where family is more than a slogan; it's a daily business practice.

The sign outside Bill Rhodes Bakery reads "a family tradition." On the inside, the slogan couldn't be truer.

The bakery is owned by mother, Becky Evans, and daughter, Karen Williams. Williams is married to baker Tom Williams, who like his wife began working at Bill Rhodes Bakery at age 16. (She worked in Snellville, and he worked in Clarkesville.)

“Through tragedies, adversity and some of life’s greatest moments we have come and stayed together," Becky Evans said. "It really is a family owned and operated business.  My son manages the Hamilton Mill location in Buford."

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Evans joined Bill Rhodes Bakery in 2000 as a manager. At the time, the bakery had been without a manager for a while and was losing luster, Evans said.

“I had never worked in a bakery before," she said. "It wasn’t like I grew up in this business, so I learned as I went along."

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Before coming to the bakery, Evans owned a gift shop and then managed a chriopractor's office. After ten years she decided she wanted to do something different, so she quit her office job. During those early days, Evans would seek help from her daughter, who worked at the bakery in high school.

"With her help and through trial and error, I learned the business inside and out," Evans said. "So much so that when Karen and I became part-owners in 2002, it felt natural.”

In 2003, Evans and Williams bought out the original owner Wade Rhodes. Rhodes was the owner of five bakeries in the Atlanta area. After the tragic death of his previous Snellville store manager, Rhodes wanted to leave the business. He and his family had run the Snellville site, housed inside a log cabin, since 1984.

Under Rhodes ownership, all of the baking was done in the Clarkesville location. Baked goods at Clarkesville location was used to stock the other four locations.  

“This was a good plan to not have a baker and baking at every store, but Clarkesville is an hour away," Evans said. "So for over a year and a half, Karen and I drove to Clarkesville every day. Not to pick up the bake goods, but to manage that location, as well.

"At the time Karen’s children had to be dropped off and picked up by us. It became very stressful; driving to and from Clarkesville five to six days out of the week and still managing this (Snellville) store. Even after hiring a manager for this store, working and driving to Clarkesville remained stressful."

Because Rhodes sold three of the five bakeries he owned, the baking in Clarkesville was eventually only supplying the Snellville location. Evans and Williams decided that to sustain operations, they had to open another bakery. While still working in Clarkesville, they opened another bakery in Buford off Hamilton Mill.

Though working in Clarkesville was stressful, it was where Williams met and fell in love with Clarkesville baker, Tom Williams. They have been married for three years. The couple both agree that they are happy to have each other, despite a rough and somewhat rocky beginning.

“Having nothing to do with his good looks, it was not love at first sight, let me tell you,” said Karen Williams about her husband Tom. “He had heard things about me and I had heard things about him. So when we started working together I thought I knew what he was like. Man was I wrong, and I am so happy that I got to really know him and to watch him work.”

Tom Williams is now the baker at the Snellville location. The Clarkesville location eventually closed, and a Hamilton Mill bakery opened in 2007.

“I am the fortunate one," he said. "I get to do what I love, every day with the person that I love. That made the move from Clarkesville so easy."

Williams started baking when he was 16 years old at Bill Rhodes Bakery. Although he has no formal training, Williams has seamlessly created tasty treats for many years now. He uses all of the original recipes. On average, Williams bakes between 400 to 500 cake layers a week.

Those cakes are Rhodes' specialties. Unique, seven-tier wedding cakes, seasonal decorated cakes and cakes for dinner deserts and more are all made at the bakery. Red velvet, hummingbird, Italian cream, carrot, German chocolate and caramel cakes are some of the flavors.

Each Rhodes bakery also sells pies, breakfast breads, cupcakes, brownies, turnovers and éclairs. Without a doubt, it is the petit fours that owners say keep many customers coming through the doors.   

“Our petit fours queen, Olivia Stewart, bakes and ices on average around 1,500 petite fours every week," Evans said. "And that number goes up to 5,000 a week during the holidays."

In addition to the bakery's name recognition, Evans said that what has kept and will keep them in business is the high-quality of their ingredients. Although Rhodes is paying more for ingredients, due to increased delivery surcharges, Evans said they will not skimp on quality of ingredients.  

In addition, customers know what to expect from the bakery, Evans said. The bakery also aims to have inexpensive comfort foods that people love, as well.

"During these stressful times, people come by grab a couple of petit fours and leave happier,” Evans said. “Who doesn’t love a bakery?”

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