food & drink Pensacola Sweet Spots

Vegan Sweets And More

Catering to Pensacola’s vibrant vegan and health-conscious community, End of the Line Café has been an institution for over 20 years, starting out as a quaint coffee shop on East Wright Street. While EOTL may be many lunchgoer’s first thought for the city’s vegan scene, it should be noted that in addition to delicious lunch, dinner and brunch selections, this killer cafe offers some truly remarkable, and of course vegan, desserts.

But can that vegan selection be just as tasty as its traditional counterpart?

“Oh, absolutely,” said Jen Knight, owner of EOTL. “With the desserts, nobody can ever really tell the difference. We are mindful of allergies: gluten, soy, nuts, all of those.”

Having become acquainted with cooking around the age of 9, Knight said she tinkers with recipes at home and then brings the winners to the cafe for the community to enjoy. She explained this was more or less by necessity, as those who gravitated toward the vegan lifestyle had few options in terms of eateries.

“There wasn’t anything for us to eat 20 years ago, so we became recipe writers,” she said.

By Bradley “Beej” Davis, Jr.

Photos by Kate Treick Photography

Knight further explained that it was rare to come across a vegan cookbook before veganism became more prevalent.

“There was no Googling a recipe,” she said of the days before craft sites like Pinterest became go-tos for professional and amateur chefs alike.

That meant starting with a classic recipe and deconstructing it, then finding substitutions for some ingredients. That also meant having to sample each and every recipe.

“There was a lot of trial and error and eating weird foods,” she joked. Joking aside, the good news is with all that trial and error, Knight was able to develop an acute understanding of food allergens. Like any responsible restaurateur, awareness of patrons’ allergies or intolerances is pivotal to business, but most importantly the difference between life and death.

“I’ve converted some of the recipes – there are some things that we can do sugar free, soy free because you can get intolerances and allergies at any point in your life, so we try to cater to as (many) as we can,” Knight said. And to the sweet tooth they cater.

Some of their delectable desserts include – all vegan of course – cheesecake as well as an assortment of cupcakes with flavors of Oreo, peanut butter and red velvet while using natural, sustainable ingredients. For instance, the color for the red velvet is derived from beets.

FROZEN TREATS, WARM ATMOSPHERE

A few years ago, former database developer and systems analyst Gary Rhodes was ready for a change. Having spent two and a half decades in the world of information technology, he developed a hankering for ice cream. Not in the sense of choosing between one scoop or two, but rather a desire to open up an ice cream shop, a longtime dream of Rhodes’s ever since his maternal grandmother Fannie Lou introduced him to these cold creations.

“She loved making desserts. She cooked all the time and she loved to make all kinds of ice cream,” Rhodes said.

Fast forward to the present-day shop on East Cervantes Street and you’ll find homage to Fannie Lou not only by the name on the sign, but also in the ice cream itself.

“I’m using some of her dessert recipes in some of the ice cream like Mississippi Mud, which is something she made all the time.”

However heavenly that flavor sounds, Rhodes has put a special local spin on the ice cream names, and you may be surprised to know that one of his bestselling flavors may not seem appealing at first.

“My best sellers are Sea-Salted Turtle and Pelican Poo,” he said.

Don’t be fooled, the tongue-in-cheek names are only more reason to spoon these treats directly into your cheeks. Infused with Oreo cookies and cream cheese and finished with a ribbon of marshmallow and fudge graham pieces, it’s no wonder it’s a challenge to keep up with the demand of Pelican Poo. In addition to his regular tried and true flavors, Fannie Lou’s features seasonal offerings like King Cake for Mardi Gras season as well as Sweet Valentine.

What sets Fannie Lou’s apart from other local traditional ice cream shops and parlors? According to Rhodes it’s that this mom-and-pop spot is a creamery in which the frozen fare is made onsite using natural, organic and delicious ingredients whenever possible.

For the time being, you’ll probably see Rhodes behind the counter every day Fannie Lou’s is open, and he wouldn’t have it any other way, and that’s largely because of his grandmother’s Southern hospitality.

“She liked to entertain when she could,” he said. “She lived way out in the country, (and) always had desserts for whoever came (over). That’s the part I like about this – people coming in and enjoying their ice cream.”

Sweet Spaces

Rhodes and Knight have a couple things in common: they both grew up in a cooking environment and both share a passion for creating food. But what if you, too, are an aspiring culinary creator, perhaps also starting off in your own home kitchen, and your passion outgrows your space?

It’s a common occurrence with up-and-coming bakers, cooks and chefs, but Bluejay’s Collective, formerly known as Bluejay’s Bakery, might be able to accommodate your growing passion and need for space. Owner Justine GudmundsonMcCain is the brainchild behind this collective kitchen because her passion also outgrew her home kitchen.

“We allow the space to be used as a commissary kitchen for other bakers,” Gudmundson-McCain said.

This means other businesses currently or formerly operating under the cottage food law and are doing markets and events that want to move into a bigger space can use Bluejay’s kitchen. In fact, the baked items created at Bluejay’s come from several bakers all utilizing the kitchen space nestled in the breezeway of the Blount Building on Palafox since 2016. Ana’s Sweet Creations operated by Ana Sicilia and Make Ends Sweet operated by Kaitlin Carroll are currently independently branded under the Bluejay’s Collective umbrella.

Bluejay’s Collective (Bluejay’s Bakery, Ana’s Sweet Creations, Make Ends Sweet), 11 Palafox Pl., Ste. E, Pensacola; 850-9829731; bluejayscollective.com

One major benefit of the use of a fully-equipped kitchen for baking is saving time. The counter and oven space alone are plenty to entice the most efficient of bakers.

“We have one who said that she would spend five days baking in preparation for Palafox Market,” GudmundsonMcCain said. “Now she comes in here for three days and does twice as much.” worth the trip

Need a sweet treat for a lot of people during a special occasion? In addition to baked goods, all of the bakers of Bluejay’s Collective specialize in cakes, from birthday to wedding and every sweet occasion in between.