Carlos Jimenez, CEO and co-founder of Le Gabrielle Crepes & Waffles, and his wife, Angela, are
shown in front of the Monroe location of the restaurant. Le Gabrielle is named after Carlos’ mother,
Gabriella, who passed away several years ago. Photo credit: Jesse Wood for The Walton Tribune
It was the year 2000 when Carlos Jimenez left his home in Colombia to start a new life in America. Being unable to speak a word of English made an already difficult transition even more so for the would-be entrepreneur. Breaking the language barrier would be the first obstacle Carlos would have to overcome as he chased his American dream, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
Now, 24 years later, overcoming all of those obstacles has turned Carlos’s dream into a reality with the founding of two franchise locations Le Gabrielle Crepes & Waffles restaurant, the original in Winder and now a second in Monroe.
“The passion of doing what we love is what makes the difference,” Carlos said. “For me, it’s a dream because I can explore all of my passions at Le Gabrielle…Cooking, architecture, design, photography, networking, being part of the community; I get to do it all here.”
Carlos has come a long way from his initial introduction to restaurants locally, which was standing in line at a McDonald’s in Athens more than two decades ago, staring at the menu and unable to order food because he didn’t know any English.
“That’s the day I realized, ‘Well, if I want to eat, I need to learn [English],’” he said.
Although Carlos was living in Athens at the time, one of his first jobs was actually in Monroe working at Avondale Mills. He recalls the experience by saying “I was working 12-hour overnight shifts. Looking back, I find it funny that my official job title at the factory was a ‘cook’, except I wasn’t cooking food. I was cooking fabric starch.”
Always having a passion forfood, Carlos continued cultivating his cooking talents over the years at many different restaurants while simultaneously taking ESL classes through local churches and at UGA. Over those years, he met his wife, Angela, and son, Jose, and they eventually relocated to the city of Winder.
Shortly thereafter, Carlos wanted to learn more about hospitality and found himself working at Chick-fil-A. During this time, he met his future business partner and co-owner of Le Gabrielle Monroe, Chris Gordon. Carlos and Chris worked together for many years at Chick-fil-A before they both unexpectedly lost their mothers within the same year. Carlos left for Colombia to mourn the loss of his mother with his
family and Chris decided to go on his own path of self discovery and spiritual journey.
From that moment forward, the two were on different life paths and didn’t know if they would ever reconnect again. That was until five years later in 2022. Chris was approaching his 15th year with Chick fil-A and was now the general manager of his location when Carlos pulled through his drive thru one day. Excited to see an old friend, Carlos invited Chris to Winder to catch up and see what he had been up to.
“At that point, I already knew that I would be opening my restaurant in downtown Winder, but the intention was not to offer Chris a job. I just wanted to get together to see how he was doing.”
However, when Chris met Carlos in Winder, Carlos was proud to show him his future restaurant.
Chris laughed as he recounted the experience: “The place was a dump! There was plywood over the doors and windows and Carlos had to shimmy the plywood door so that we could get in. When we got in, there were no walls or anything at all; just construction material littering the floor. However, after Carlos started to tell me about the vision of his concept, I could start to envision it in my mind.”
Carlos shared that his restaurant would be dedicated to his mom, Gabriella, and named in her honor. He also shared how crepes are popular in both France and Colombia, but are done very differently. He already knew that sweet crepes were popular here in America, but he wanted to help introduce and popularize the concept of savory crepes to Georgia because very few businesses were doing it.
Additionally, Carlos saw an opportunity to also incorporate his crepe concept with both breakfast and brunch and decided to lean into that market to provide a more upscale breakfast experience than many might be used to.
“You need somebody with a vision,” Carlos said. “Because if I show you an empty box full of dust and trash inside and I say, ‘This is going to be a business,’ normal people won’t take you seriously.”
And from that moment forward, a partnership was born. Carlos and Chris joined forces and began the long and tedious process of building an entirely new concept from scratch and testing recipes in their own kitchens.
“Surprisingly, creating the recipes and flavors that we wanted was not the hardest part; yes those things were time-consuming and took a lot of trial and error, but I would say the hardest part of starting a new business is finding the right people to help you bring your vision to life and craft the workplace culture that you want” Chris said.
Carlos added “We feel incredibly blessed to have such an amazing team and community behind us and supporting us. We feel like God and Gabriella are both looking down on us and guiding us.”
His passion for food and cooking led Carlos to explore many different types of restaurants and cuisines.
From Mediterranean restaurants, to training as a hibachi chef to then becoming a sushi chef, to learning about hospitality at Chick-fil-A, to then exploring fine dining and its element of artistry, Carlos has worked in all restaurant positions from dishwasher up to GM. Carlos describes his own restaurant as “French inspired with cooking techniques and flavors from all over the world” and attributes the broad range of flavors in his own restaurant to the culinary techniques that he has been blessed to learn over the years.
Le Gabrielle first opened its doors in June of 2022 in Winder.
When looking for their next location’s home and at the invitation of Monroe’s city administrator, Logan Propes, Carlos and Chris could feel the energy through the streets when touring Monroe. In February of 2024, Carlos and Chris officially opened their second Le Gabrielle location in Monroe. Former home to Silver Queen, Chris and Carlos fell in love with the building immediately and Carlos remarked “It feels like I’m finally back home to where my journey began.”
