We were lucky to catch up with Romel Pinnix recently and have shared our conversation below.
Romel , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
The name De La Gateau is actually a play on words from a character on one of my favorite shows, The Fresh Prince of Bel- Air. In the episode, the main character (Will) had to take a poetry class, which he wasn’t thrilled about. He met a poetry- forward girl in the class that he tried to impress by telling her that he knew the famous poet “Raphael De La Ghetto”. Will promised the girl that he would get Raphael to perform at their school, but it turned out to be his butler in an Afro and dashiki telling old war stories. I am a poet, as well and I found this episode to be hilarious. I thought it would be a funny and fun way to involve multiple aspects of myself into one!
Romel , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hi Everyone! My name is Romel and I am the owner and operator of a micro bakery called De La Gateau Cheesecakes. De La Gateau operates on the Northwest side of Chicago and has grown tremendously since its beginning in 2020. I like to say that De La Gateau is art that you can eat. Each cake that I make and each creation that I create is truly a reflection of myself. De La Gateau is uniquely crafted and dedicated to blending creativity, quality and comfort in every bite. The Goal is to craft memorable desserts that brings joy and a bit of elegance to any occasion!
A bit of background on myself, I grew up on the Southside of Chicago(Bronzeville) with a single mother, two brothers and an older sister. Cheesecake was my mother’s favorite dessert and a dessert that always held fond memories for me. When we were younger, our mother would take us to the Taste of Chicago during the summer. It usually aligned with Eli’s Cheesecakes anniversary. I recall being a little boy and waiting in a huge line with my mother and brothers for a piece of this towering Eli’s Cheesecake. Despite the line, everyone always seemed ecstatic to get a piece of cake. The joy it brought me seeing everyone else so joyous, and seeing a cake that was bigger than my being was always beautiful to me. So, De La Gateau is also a subtle tribute to my late mother!
De La Gateau is a single operator micro bakery. Since its birth, I’ve received an outpour of support with constant new and returning customers! The community that has been built around me due to the cakes that I create is so beautiful. The company’s slogan is “From the Gateau, with Love” ; something that I’ve felt from the community and continue to pour into this business. With the current state of the world, I still choose to believe that we all share so much more in common than what divides us. Food is and always has been top common denominator. My hopes for De La Gateau is to continue to promote togetherness and kindness through the things that unify us.
In 2024, De La Gateau was nominated for the Chicago Reader’s “Best of Dessert” category. The nomination alone was so special to me. Although De La Gateau did not win, I was a runner up. This is something that still meant so much to me. Outside of De La Gateau, I still work a day job, which makes it quite difficult at times to pour into what I really love, Cheesecakes and making you smile. My vision is to someday open a brick and mortar bakery to serve the lovely people of Chicago! Until then, I have been pouring my time into creating custom orders, as well as doing pop up events around the Northwest side of Chicago!
2025 and beyond is looking bright for De La Gateau and I look forward to serving you cheesecake in the near future!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I’ve been doing De La Gateau since around 2020, but I have been taking it a bit more serious as of the past couple years. Every holiday season and weekend, I leave my 9-5 and find myself baking through the nights and into the morning. I find that juggling your day job with your passion calls for great resilience, as it often requires much personal sacrifice in order to generally achieve. This past season, I was a part of my first pop up events! The first was with chef Rob at Diaspora Kitchen, which was amazing. The second was an art Gala and showcase created by @Malikshotyou. I found myself leaving work, going straight into baking, leaving baking to go back to work, going back to baking and repeating the cycle. All in order to be prepared for this event. There were plenty of sleepless nights and frustration, but resilience won and I’m proud to say the event was amazing!
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media is not my strong suit and I find that it is very critical in running a business. I have to say that the community definitely helped me with this. Word of mouth is how De La Gateau truly got its start. I have to thank my friends at Funeral Potatoes, Bad Channel, Pierogi Papi, Kat at Butterbird and sooo many others for reposting my stories and posts. I appreciate so many people wanting to see this business thrive. Word of mouth truly helped my social media presence and motivated me to be a bit better with social media and posting content. I’m somewhat shy at heart, so this is all a work in progress.
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