Bert Chapman

What’s for dinner? Maybe you haven’t discovered Chapman’s Café on Roswell Road which is open for lunch and light dinner and offers carry out family meals that you can take home, heat and serve. You can always find something new created by an excellent chef, Bert, who believes you “build family time with great food”

What inspired you or led to your current career? When I first started washing dishes at a resort in Destin, Florida (where I am from) and I saw the chef’s in their white coats – that was it! I knew what I wanted to do. I worked my way across the Gulf Coast in restaurants until an executive chef in New Orleans encouraged me to go to the Culinary Institute of America. After completing school, I did an internship in Grayton Beach, Florida then moved to Atlanta.

How long have you lived and or worked in Sandy Springs? I moved to Atlanta in 2000 – actually I came to Atlanta with my best friend and was planning to stay a year and then return to the beach and here I am. I worked at the Buckhead Diner and then I was the executive chef at Vickery’s and then Highland Tap. In 2014, I left the late night hours to become a personal chef and spend more time with my wife and daughters. In 2015, my wife and I purchased a café, The Royal Affair which became Chapman’s Café. We live in Sandy Springs and think the location is the perfect spot to share great food with friends and family.

What is your favorite thing? Cooking, eating and family time. I would also say making other people happy with cooking and eating (Catering 50th anniversary parties where I get to see the guests smiling and enjoying -for example)

Choosing anyone alive or past – who would you like to have lunch with? My grandfather – it would be great to sit down and talk to him as an adult

Who is the most interesting person you have met here? Dan Reeves and his wife came in a week after we first opened. They were great, very nice people

What is on your bucket list? I would like to go to Argentina to go Red Stag hunting and go to Australia to go Marlin fishing.

What advice would you give to people? Work hard, have faith and stay true to your passion

What words come to mind when you think of the word home? Destin, Florida – salty air and the white sandy beach

Debbie Soneshine of The Sonenshine Teamwould love your Faces nominations.

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