After years of working on baking their culinary concept, Gabriella & Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux almost gave up.
The couple, who brought a long history of working in test kitchens and food media, spent more than two years in the Catapult Lakeland incubator and co-working space's commercial kitchen, working to develop what is now Bandidas, a Latin-themed bakery and food shop in Lakeland.
But like many startups, it almost didn’t materialize. After thinking they had found a “sure thing” retail space, the deal fell through, and they had other media and culinary work to sustain them.
“I had this weekly column that paid well and was freelancing, and Gio was toying with going back to school,” Gabriella said. “We had made a plan to do something else.”
Perseverance paid off when they found their shopfront space outside downtown next to a venerable Gigi’s Korean grocery on East Edgewood Drive. Bandidas opened last month in Lakeland and has quickly attracted repeat customers and a following for its focaccia sandwiches, cakes, pastries and cookies.
Entrepreneurial ambitions
In 2019, after nearly 10 years in New York, and having grown up in the area, Gabriella moved back to Lakeland and started an empanada company.
"I was slinging empanadas from my mom's kitchen until I realized that wasn't legal," she said. Gio also had a business selling Nicaraguan food when she moved back from New York.
She and Gio first joined the Catapult when it was in the basement of the Bank of America building (Catapult moved to its own 40,000-square-foot space in February 2020).
They got engaged and realized they had duplicated membership fees, licenses, and insurance costs. That led to their development agreement for what would become Bandidas.
The pair utilized Catapult’s resources and held many pop-up events in the more than two years they spent there. Although they were not profitable, they learned how to run a viable food business.
While in residence there, the pair worked with Maggie Leach, who was kitchen director until this past February, when she took the role of incubation manager at the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago. Leach was an enormous help to the couple.
“They give you an idiot's guide to starting a small business that tells you everything you need to know, every kind of thing you need to be paying for, how to open a bank account,” Gabriella said. “I had no business experience at all. I studied art and then went to work in New York. And nobody taught me anything. Licensing is a state-by-state thing, and it's different everywhere.”
Having a space to cook with subsidized rent also helped. Stations in the Catapult kitchen have two stainless steel prep tables and a shelf included in the rent.
"We needed a lot of shelves, so we were paying for all that."
Costs hastened the search for a brick-and-mortar locale, and finding the space took a long time.
Financing the non-concept concept
The couple pitched themselves as a business to many of the traditional bankers and were met with confusion.
“[The bankers] needed a more clear concept. And they weren't vibing with our whole, ‘Trust us, we know what we're doing. We left [the area]. We trained and made great food,” Gabriella said.
Potential lenders would ask if they planned to sell Cuban sandwiches. They said no because neither is Cuban. Gio’s family is from Nicaragua, and Gabriella’s is from Puerto Rico.
“I never felt like I was ever taken seriously. Never. Not for one moment,” Gio said.
That means Bandidas is 100% family and self-funded. The entrepreneurs heard a lot of “no” and stopped asking.
“I sold all my stocks. Our parents invested,” Gabriella said.
The concept they launched last month reflects their experiences, travels and desires.
“We're both proud of our heritage and journey to get here, and neither of us likes to beg for anything,” Gabriella said.
“[We decided that] if we want this to be what we want it to be, it's got to be all on us,” Gabriella said.
Bandidas [not] defined
The word “Bandidas” isn’t easily translated into English. A close meaning is “mischievous” or “naughty,” but in a stealing-a-cookie way.
“[Bandidas] fits our concept well because many people want a one-word answer for what our concept is,” Gabriella said. “It's not a traditional European bakery. It's not a Latin bakery. It's a reflection of what we like.”
One example is an olive oil cake, something common in New York bakeries but locally less known. There is a core lineup of daily cakes, cookies, and pastries. But the menu changes from day to day.
That has frustrated some customers, but that’s part of what they do.
“We're just creating our own little world here is the best way I can describe it,” she said.
About the Favilli-Vigoreauxs
Gabriella grew up in Winter Haven and Giovanna in Bartow. Gabriella has always worked around food.
"My mom's a great entertainer, and I grew up having amazing parties at our house with amazing food, and I've always really liked feeding people," she said.
They are five years apart in age but met in New York and soon realized that their fathers, both physicians, had known each other for 30 years while working in Polk County. “Now they're friends," Gabriella said.
Gabriella, a University of Miami undergrad, graduated from the International Culinary Center in New York in 2013. She is now a seasoned freelance writer who, in addition to the bakery, writes a weekly column for a climate-friendly cuisine Substack about eliminating food waste. Once the bakery closes, she does freelance work. She is also the former associate test kitchen editor of Good Housekeeping at Hearst Magazines. Gio is a skilled videographer and video editor with experience in food styling and vegan cooking. For Vice, she worked to develop and test recipes for chefs.
The couple moved back to Lakeland during Covid, joined the Catapult incubator in 2021, and married in October 2022.
