Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell Jennifer Verville, the owner of Sweet Gipsy Bakeshop Cafe on Signal Mountain, frosts a Salty and Sweet Cake. The cake is made with chocolate cake, homemade salted caramel and a bittersweet chocolate ganache with imported French sea salt sprinkled on top.

Jennifer Verville was sitting in the dentist’s chair having her teeth cleaned when the hygienist gave her some advice that changed her life.

She suggested she open a restaurant in the vacant building next door.

A few months and a lot of work later, Mrs. Verville looks over the building from the front porch of Sweet Gipsy Bakeshop Cafe and smiles.

“Now they’re some of my best customers,” she said.

The shop opened on Signal Mountain May 1 and is a welcome addition to the community, said Mary McMillan, the hygienist who recommended the location on James Boulevard.

“There is always room for more restaurants in my opinion,” she said. “I think it was much needed.”

Mrs. Verville and her husband, physician Gregory Verville, invested about $200,000 turning the more than 50-year-old building into an airy, open cafe and bakery. She serves brunch, sandwiches and baked goods Tuesdays through Saturday. Specialties include homemade chicken salad on a croissant and a salty-sweet chocolate cake topped with French sea salt.

She also sells pre-made casseroles, soups and dips in a display case and offers eight varieties of gelato, Italian-style ice cream. The ice cream, she said, has been very popular with students at Thrasher Elementary, which is just across the street.

Mrs. Verville, a native of Mississippi, has trouble identifying the cafe’s theme, but there are clear Southern and European influences in the cafe, from the illy brand coffee to the iced vanilla mint tea.

The mother of a 2-year-old daughter, she says she wants the restaurant to be a place for moms and their youngsters, and for ladies who lunch, like the residents of nearby Alexian Village.

Before coming to Chattanooga, Mrs. Verville owned a catering business in Jackson, Miss., called Gipsy Gourmet, which she sold before she left. She said she liked the named so much she decided to use it in the new shop.

Mrs. Verville has a degree in art history, but she got her love of cooking from her family. Both her mother and grandmother love to cook and bake, and her aunt owns a restaurant in Mississippi. Even duing her childhood she dreamed of owning her own restaurant and lviing above it.

The first few weeks of operation have been very busy, she said, but she is taking it all in stride and trying not to get overwhelmed.

“The catering background certainly helps,” she said. “I don’t get flustered.”

So far she has two full-time employees helping her in the cafe and a couple of others she refers to as “moms on call,” stay-at-home moms that help out a few hours each week.

Ms. McMillan said she and the rest of the staff at the dental center love the cafe and have been eating there about once a week because it is so convenient.

In the 14 years she has worked for Dr. Larry Welch, she has seen the building take several different incarnations, including dance studio, tea room and day care. Most recently the building was a call center for an insurance company, and was filled with cubicles.

“When I met Jennifer, I thought, if anybody can do it, she can do it,” Ms. McMillan said.