Canvas Cafe and Bakery and now Canvas Catering are the realization of a blessing. Christopher and Anna Gatti met and fell in love at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York. They moved back to Marietta, Chris’ hometown, after graduating and began making their way through some of the most sought after kitchens that the Atlanta dining scene had to offer working with many of Atlanta’s best known and well-respected chefs. After marrying in 2001 they continued their culinary training in Asheville, North Carolina. Anna was the Executive Chef of the four star Albemarle Inn, while Christopher was Executive Chef of the four star Horizons Restaurant at the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa. When their conversations of the future kept coming back to a “small sandwich shop, like Rossi’s Italian Deli in Hyde Park, NY”, a place they frequented while they were falling in love at culinary school, they decided that their dream would best be realized back “home” in Marietta.

Before opening and during the planning stages of Canvas Cafe and Bakery, both Chris and Anna felt like they needed to add to their already impressive resumes. For Anna it was pastry training at the well-known Canoe restaurant, and then a stint studying wedding cake design with a well-known cake designer in Marietta, and for Chris it was a desire to understand catering and as jokingly he puts it “feeding the masses”. Chris took a position with Proof of the Pudding, Atlanta’s most prestigious and respected caterer. After only a month, Vagn Nielsen, the corporate chef of Proof of the Pudding, asked him to take the Executive Chef position at the newly built, state of the art, Georgia International Convention Center. Chris would soon realize what “feeding the masses” was really all about. At the GICC Chef Chris oversaw an enormous staff and lead them through events for 10-10,000 and more often than not, multiple events on any given day for hundreds and thousands of diners. This amazing opportunity allowed Chris to understand the logistics of catering and allowed him to figure out how to feed 2000 people the same high level of cuisine that he was used to creating at some of the most prestigious restaurants already under his hand.

In February of 2006 Anna and Christopher opened Canvas Cafe and Bakery, it didn’t end up as “small” as the little Rossi’s deli that they liked so much in New York, but had taken on an identity all its own. Today they still laugh about the words of the old Italian Mr. Rossi and his wife whole-heartedly agreeing behind him, “start small, are you listening, start small, you can always grow, but you cannot shrink!”

You might be Curious...Why is the number 7 everywhere?

At Canvas cafe and bakery and Canvas Catering we believe that the number seven is very important. The number seven is the number of completion and perfection, and although we do not claim to be perfect all the time, we are constantly reminded that there are seven steps toward completion in everything that we do:

1. Work as though working for God.
2. Use only the highest quality, local when possible, seasonal ingredients available
3. Work with a sense of urgency
4. Exhibit Grace, Hospitality and Understanding
5. Exceed Expectations
6. Follow through with all requests. ‘Let your yes be your yes, and your no be your no.’
7. Verify that our completion is also yours