Daphne's queens of king cake make Gourmet Goodies' crawfish treat best in Alabama

By MELANIE LECROY
Lifestyle Editor
melanie@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 2/17/23

DAPHNE — It has been one year since Gulf Coast Media first interviewed Gourmet Goodies owners Laura Stafford and Barbara Sylkatis in their Daphne storefront. It has been a whirlwind. Over the …

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Daphne's queens of king cake make Gourmet Goodies' crawfish treat best in Alabama

Gourmet Goodies owners Laura Stafford and Barbara Sylkatis are enjoying the upward trajectory of their business.
Gourmet Goodies owners Laura Stafford and Barbara Sylkatis are enjoying the upward trajectory of their business.
Micah Green / Gulf Coast Media
Posted

DAPHNE — It has been one year since Gulf Coast Media first interviewed Gourmet Goodies owners Laura Stafford and Barbara Sylkatis in their Daphne storefront. It has been a whirlwind. Over the last year, they quadrupled their business, hired more staff to keep up with demand and dominated king cake competitions in New Orleans and Mobile.

Stafford and Sylkatis didn't go into king cake season thinking about competitions until they received a phone call. A gentleman called and asked if they would enter the King Cake Extravaganza in New Orleans but they had never heard of the competition and weren't making king cake yet.

"We asked how he heard about us and he said he read an article about our crawfish king cake last year and knew a few people that had tried our food," Sylkatis said.

They took a chance and got one prepared for pick up and waited to hear the results. The phone call came Jan. 7. The crawfish king cake made it to the Top 20 out of 150 king cakes. The following day the overall results came in and it was a surprise.

Gourmet Goodies won first place for the state of Alabama, first place in the Savory King Cake category, Best New Contender and placed third overall. The competition was stiff with 150 king cakes from five states. The 2018 James Beard Award-winning New Orleans bakery Dong Phuong took first place overall.

Gourmet Goodies began taking king cake pre-orders the day after the announcement and it has been a whirlwind in every sense. The order book filled quickly, especially after the media attention. Customers have traveled from Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida to pick up king cakes.

After the King Cake Extravaganza results were released, every news and media outlet on the Gulf Coast came calling. There have been tv news stories, on-air appearances and countless articles. The buzz has even attracted national media.

Stafford said the media attention also caught the eye of Mobile's King Cake-Off organizers.

"When we won the King Cake Extravaganza someone asked if we were going to do the King Cake-Off. We didn't know anything about it," Stafford said. "Two people from their board and the lady who owns the King Cake-Off contacted us and asked if we would participate."

Stafford admitted that her first thought was, "can we do this?" The staff was already busy with the daily food and catering orders and king cakes. Entering the King Cake-Off would mean hundreds of samples of three flavors and products to fill the retail booth. The team decided to go for it.

Gourmet Goodies had three sample booths and one retail sales booth at the King Cake-Off. The entire staff, their families and friends came to help and Sylkatis said she is glad because it was crazy.

"As soon as the King Cake-Off started, our tables had lines of people. We couldn't see anything because of all the crowds. It was 15 people deep," Sylkatis said. "If people wanted to buy something but were at a sample table, they couldn't get down to the vendor table. When we ran out of samples, we just let everyone manning our sample tables sell what was left."

Gourmet Goodies walked away from the King Cake-Off with the first-place trophy in the traditional king cake category with their sweet heat king cake. A flavor they debuted at the competition. The sweet heat king cake's filling is made using Gourmet Goodies strawberry and jalapeno jelly and cream cheese. Stafford said the flavor suggestion came from her mother and it has been a hit.
Stafford doesn't like to disappoint her customers, so she came up with a way to get king cake into customer's hands despite being unable to take orders for full king cakes. The solution was king cake bombs.

"We work all week just trying to get little bombs made. Then once a week, I don't advertise when it is going to be," Stafford said. "When I start seeing these lines I have to go in the back. It makes me a nervous wreck. I am scared people may fight or something. I don't want to disappoint people, I don't want them to get mad and I don't want a fight."

Most weeks there is a line around the building an hour before the doors open.
It is a good problem to have.

Looking to the future

Stafford and Sylkatis are already thinking about Mardi Gras 2024. Gourmet Goodies is scheduled to be featured in a national magazine's Mardi Gras issue in February 2024. They already get phone calls about shipping nationwide which they do not do but they are working to figure out the logistics.

Gourmet Goodies' customers keep the staff busy year-round and continue to ask when they will open a restaurant. Stafford hopes they can find a way to expand into offering seated meals, but they aren't there yet.

"I just think about the awesome way God has connected us with people. I couldn't have tried to do something like this, she couldn't have tried to do something like this. It was straight up a God thing," Stafford said.

"It is a God thing because last year when we did our ribbon cutting, Michael contacted all the news affiliates and no one got back to him and now we are on every channel," Sylkatis said.