Gabrielle Roy Richard, owner of Gabi's Pie Shoppe
Pie Shoppe owner celebrates years of sweet success!
For the owner of Gabi’s Pie Shoppe, business is all about sharing a piece of herself and her passion for baking unique sweet treats with others.
“You walk in here and it’s me. From the desserts to the decor, to what we post online — it’s really just me,” said Gabrielle Roy Richard.
The business, located on Water Street in Miramichi, sells baked goods featuring unique designs and flavours Gabrielle creates herself.
She draws inspiration from all around her, and with a background in fashion design, often decides how a baked good should look before making the flavour match.
“It’s really taking inspiration from everything around me and then turning it into recipes,” she said.
She uses her creativity and passion to offer a different menu each day her business is open - featuring staple treats like fried pies and whole pies, in a variety of flavours. She offers other fun and delicious creations based on her most recent inspiration.
“That way I’m never really stuck in a rut. I can just let my creativity flow as much as I want to,” she said.
The pie shoppe opened in February 2020 with a warm and enthusiastic welcome from the people of Miramichi and surrounding area.
“It was absolutely insane the amount of people that were coming in,” Gabrielle said of her first days in business.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic created a challenging business environment just one month later, Gabrielle said she continued to have the support of her customers. Now in its fifth year, she said the business has continued to grow.
“We have new customers coming in every day and we also have our regulars who have been with us since the beginning,” she said. “Some of them, I’ve catered their wedding and then their baby shower. They’re customers for life, basically, and it’s pretty great.”
With fond childhood memories of being in the kitchen with her mom and grandma, Gabrielle started baking as a hobby while studying in the fashion industry in Ontario. She continued while working in the industry for a short time.
As time went on, she was baking more and more. With an abundance of product, she turned her passion into a side business, selling her unique treats in markets and online, and even making them for a restaurant she was working at.
“I built myself a small clientele in Ottawa,” she said.
Looking for a change of pace and a reason to move closer to family in Campbellton, she and her husband decided to move back to New Brunswick - to Miramichi – where her partner was able to continue working for the Federal government.
“It was kind of putting roots somewhere new for both of us,” she said.
With an original idea to start selling her goods at a market, and eventually grow her business in Miramichi, Gabrielle’s idea evolved quickly when the perfect storefront location became available.
“I called and the rent was good, so I just decided to go for it,” she said.
Gabrielle reached out to CBDC Northumberland to get some help. She qualified for the Self-Employment Benefit Program (SEB) and got a business loan to renovate the storefront into her dream bakery.
“If it wasn’t for the loan and the SEB program, I’m not sure we would have been able to open. So really, they were there at the ground floor,” she said of her local CBDC.
“Most of them are my customers too.”