OLATHE, Kan. — Geo's Gourmet in Olathe brings a taste of home to Brazilians who live in the metro area.
“Sometimes I arrive here and there are people outside waiting,” said Frederico Souza, the bakery's manager, about their regulars.
He has customers who go there every day to get their pão francês, a common item on Brazilian breakfast tables. The English translation is French bread.
Over the last two years, the authentic Brazilian bakery has also sold goods made in Brazil, the kind of items that are hard to find in the Midwest.
They are already dealing with the side effects of higher prices for imported goods.
“It hasn't been easy, but we are thinking positively,” Souza says.
He said they are absorbing the price increases.
“It made a big difference. We'll try to hold on,” said Souza.
If their prices were to go up, it would affect customers like KC Current star, Bia Zaneratto, who often goes there to get a taste of home.
It would also affect David Church of Olathe, who lived in Brazil in the 1990s.
“I always have to find the guaraná diet,” Church said.
He said he hasn't seen an increase in prices yet, but expects they will come.
This is a possibility the bakery is working hard to avoid.
But the sudden changes won't affect their plans for growth. They will soon move to a new, bigger location.
“I can't wait,” Sousa said.
For Church, the continued chance to revisit a beloved place, even if it costs a bit more in the future, is worth it.
“My wife tells me that when we go to heaven, we will all speak Portuguese in heaven,” Church said.
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