Gocha Hawkins spent nearly three decades building a career behind the chair before she ever cracked an egg for a living, and now she’s the name behind a popular Atlanta brunch spot. Her restaurant, Gocha’s Breakfast Bar, has grown from a single Cascade Road storefront into a small hospitality empire built on fluffy pancakes, shrimp and grits, and French toast piled high with Bananas Foster.
A Hairstylist’s Second Act
Before she was flipping pancakes, Hawkins was styling some of the biggest names to come through Atlanta. As reported by Eater Atlanta, she spent nearly 30 years in the beauty industry, owns Gocha Salon in Midtown, and built her reputation as the go-to hairstylist for reality star Kandi Burruss and tennis legend Serena Williams. That client list gave her a foothold in Atlanta long before she ever opened a restaurant, and it’s part of the story CBS News Atlanta highlighted in featuring her transformation from stylist to restaurateur.
An opening date reported by Eater Atlanta says that Hawkins first opened Gocha’s Breakfast Bar on Cascade Road in 2019, serving an all-day brunch menu. The Cascade Road location became the foundation for everything that followed.
From One Location to a Growing Group
Hawkins opened a second Gocha’s Breakfast Bar location a year after the first, landing in Fayetteville at the Summit Point shopping complex, per Eater Atlanta’s reporting. The brand’s expansion also includes a food truck, though the current count as of this fall was not independently verified.
That food truck marked a deliberate expansion of her original concept. Gocha Hawkins expanded service at her Atlanta Breakfast Bar by opening an adjacent food truck, according to a press release posted on gochasbreakfastbar.com. The same press materials note she has also been reported to be launching Gocha’s All Day in Atlantic Station, a sign of how far the brand has stretched beyond its brunch-only roots.
Bigger Digs on Cascade Road
The flagship location recently got dramatically bigger. Hawkins reopened the Cascade Road Gocha’s Breakfast Bar after an expansion that added an extra 80 seats, effectively doubling its capacity, according to Atlanta Magazine. The move suggests demand has outpaced the original footprint, something Eater Atlanta’s earlier reporting also picked up on, noting that despite offering reservations, both restaurant locations often see lines forming on the weekends…