What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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featured dining guide story Advertorial Feature BY RANDY RICE | thE DININg guIDE 42 What's up! december 15-21, 2019 Gigi's Cupcakes: built from scratch, made with love, every day D onna and Charlie Smith were poultry farmers. They never imagined they would be the proprietors of a food service operation, much less a gourmet cupcake shop. But a chance encounter while out of town resulted in a delicious twist of fate to their careers. "My husband Charlie and I stumbled across Gigi's by accident on a visit to Little Rock," said Donna Smith, co-owner with her husband of Gigi's Cupcakes in Bentonville. "We just fell in love with their products. Once we tasted them, nobody could compare to their quality and unique recipes." On subsequent visits to the state's capitol they always scheduled a stop by Gigi's to load up on goodies to enjoy back home. They soon began to feel a little frustrated. They loved the one-of-a-kind recipes Gigi's is known for but they had to drive four hours to enjoy them. Around this same time Donna and Charlie were starting to think about moving away from the poultry business and, following the maxim: "do what you love", got the idea to explore Gigi's because, as already mentioned, they loved those cupcakes. "We learned that Gigi's was a franchise and about four years ago we started to look into bringing a store to the Bentonville area," Donna said. "For personal reasons it took a few years until we were ready to make the move." They eventually purchased the franchise a little over a year ago and it's basically taken that long to get it up and running. "I can't really explain why we did it. We had no background in the food industry whatsoever," Donna said. "But we were looking for a way to transition out of what we were doing and we just believed in the product and knew that once people tasted the cupcakes they would fall in love with them, just like we did. And fortunately for us, that's exactly what's happened." The original Gigi's opened in Nashville, TN in 2008. Today, with nearly 100 locations nationwide, their one-of-a-kind cupcakes and signature swirl frosting bring happiness and joy to customers throughout many states every day. And that was the appeal to Donna and Charlie, bringing joy to their customers. The quality and care that goes into every cupcake is the reason for their success. "We make everything from scratch. Everything," Donna explained. "The cakes, the frosting, everything. Everything is made in house and made fresh every day, too. Nothing brought in from the outside from some other location or frozen."