Pablo and Missy's Brings Artisan Baking Back to Old Town

Talk of the Town - July 2023

After years of selling their goods at farmers’ markets across the Coast, Pablo Paz and Missy Geisel finally had the opportunity to open a brick and mortar business.

– by Maurice Singleton

Pablo Paz and Missy Geisel’s dream of owning their own bakery came together on July 8, when they opened the doors of Pablo and Missy’s in the Froogle’s Shopping Center in Bay St. Louis. The bakery opened to rave reviews and sellouts of everything in the store.
 

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​“It has been wonderful,” Missy said of the support of the new bakery. “We never anticipated it would be this big. I’m very grateful for all the support we’re getting.”
 

 
The two former Serious Bread bakers have been on a path to this end for some time. Pablo started baking in his family’s bakery in Guatemala when he was seven years old. Missy started baking at Serious Bread in 2010 after working eight years in construction.
 
Pablo left Guatemala when he was 18 and continued his baking career in California, working in different bakeries across the state. He later worked for bakeries in Florida before spending eight years at Krummel’s Mandeville (La.) Bake Shop, where he learned to bake king cakes and shoe soles. He won second place on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for his king cake.
 
“There’s nothing that Pablo can’t do,” said Missy. “Not only is he a good baker, he’s a good cook, too.”
 

 
Customers are drawn to Pablo and Missy’s due to their reputations and the special bakery treats that they have been producing together for the past 13 years. Unique creations like the Missy Cookie, a white almond chocolate chip sugar cookie with cranberries, and classics like blueberry lemon poppyseed muffins and shoe soles offer customers a variety of options to choose from. However, Pablo and Missy are most known for their artisan bread creations.
 
They have spent many years perfecting their recipes since they met at Serious Bread. After leaving Serious Bread, they baked out of their home and sold at farmers’ markets in Bay St. Louis, Long Beach, Gulfport, and Picayune.
 
Missy says what makes their bread special is the process of soaking and fermenting the grains before making the breads, which are primarily sourdough. She says that sourdough is a staple for Pablo and Missy’s because it is a healthier bread. She added that it’s a hard, intense bread-making process, but it’s made with love, and it makes digestion easier.
 

 
“All our customers know that, and that’s why we sell out of the sourdough breads,” Missy explained.
 
The immediate success of Pablo and Missy’s has been “exhausting” for the staff. Pablo and Missy do all the baking and prep work, which has required the two of them to work seven days a week, leaving little time to rest. Missy’s daughter and sister-in-law help at the counter during store hours – 7:00 am to 3:00 pm (or until sold out), Tuesday through Saturday.
  
“It’s always been a dream of ours to have our own bakery so that we wouldn’t have to do the farmers’ markets,” said Missy. “Standing out there in the winter in 30-degree weather waiting for somebody to come by to buy a loaf of bread is not comfortable. In the summer, when you’re out there sweating your butt off and your breads are all sweating, and you don’t sell all your bread, where are do you bring it back to?”
 

 
Missy said that they sold their breads at the local farmers’ markets under the Mississippi Cottage Law. She said that the farmers’ market days may have been somewhat tough, but she considers those days as client-building efforts.
 
“That brought us a lot of clients from people who had never tried things like that,” said Missy. “If we had anything left, we would distribute it among the vendors out there.”
 
While Missy credits their farmers’ market days as more motivation to open the bakery, she looks at the days at Serious Bread as the true inspiration behind their dream of the bakery. She worked there for six years, and that’s where she fell in love with the art of baking.
 

 
The opening of Pablo and Missy’s filled the void created when Serious Bread closed on Main Street in downtown Bay St. Louis earlier this year. Missy said that many of the Serious Bread customers have come to Pablo and Missy’s to buy their bread.
 
In just over two weeks of operation, Missy is already thinking about what’s next for the business and is making plans to expand by adding more preparation space and walk-in freezer.
 
“Our first day, our opening day we opened at seven and we closed the doors at twelve, because we sold everything in here,” said Missy. “And we had plenty baked. I am prepping so much to bake for those days that I don’t have enough room to put my prep work in. That’s how overwhelming it’s been here.”
 

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