July 18, 2023 – One moment PGA pro Andrea Lee, a California native and Stanford grad, is sticking her tee shot on Pebble Beach Golf Links’ legendary #7 hole within a foot of the cup.
The next second, USA Network is cutting to that same golfer in the kitchen with Reba Wilson, owner-operator and head baker of Sweet Reba’s, a semi-secret gem of a bakery tucked away in Carmel’s Crossroads.
They talk about Wilson’s appearance on “Cake Wars,” frosting techniques and how to properly eat a cupcake.
It was not the content many golf fans expected amid TV coverage of this month’s Women’s U.S. Open.
Wilson didn’t see it coming either. She was simply happy to participate in the video, which was produced by the Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“I had no idea they would play it in the middle of the tournament!” she says.
If that was a fun surprise for her fanbase, another bigger one soon followed.
Things are about to get sweeter for #Rebabelievers: Wilson and her fiancé Mike Abbruezze are adding a much bigger second outpost in Salinas.
Positioned at 268 Main St., kitty corner from Alvarado Street Brewery in the heart of Oldtown, the new location will triple the size of their Carmel shop.
Wilson is eyeing a spring or summer 2024 debut, given the full build-out and permitting in the pipeline.
“It’s a whole different vibe,” she says. “We love the Crossroads and the community we’ve built, but to be able to go into a place with so much more room allows us to do more savory [items], more lunch, more capacity for all types of production.”
She adds that her team will now be able to emphasize the last part of its full title, Sweet Reba’s Bakery and Kitchen.
“It’ll allow my creative side to express itself more,” she says, ticking off new sausage-egg-cheese-puff pastry breakfast “turnovers” (now gaining a following in Carmel), deli salads, soups, deviled eggs. “All the things I’d love to do but don’t have the space for.”
As she told Edible last year—ahead of her work at Cali Roots—a focus on locals is key to their approach.
“So many businesses go after the almighty tourist dollar,” she says. “It was really important to Mike and I to do stuff for the people who live here all year. And we’re way busier than we ever anticipated, so that’s a huge point of pride. We’ll take tourist money too, but we want to do right by locals.”
That won’t change in a historic Salinas district experiencing a brisk renaissance.
“It’s great to see the revival happening in Oldtown, and to be a part of it is very exciting,” Wilson says. “We hope to bring our sense of community and to build it further.”
Abbruezze flags another element they’ll build on by broadening their offerings and designing the place exactly to their specs: “We’ll be able to add our personality a little more too.”
More at sweetrebas.com.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
