Tag: Bedrock Eats & Sweets

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Chewing Over the Food News of 2015

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

In looking over 2015, one thing stood out: brand expansion. Aldo’s Pizza Pies, with its swell rooftop patio, and City Market (grab and go!) came to Cooper-Young. Fino’s opened a second restaurant in East Memphis (yay sandwiches!), and Mediterranean mainstay Casablanca returned to Midtown. Both Bedrock Eats & Sweets, the paleo eatery, and the all-vegan Pink Diva Cupcakery and Cuisine got places to call their own.

Justin Fox Burks

Bedrock Eats & Sweets

Ermyias Shiberou, owner of Stickem food truck, opened Blue Nile Ethiopian Kitchen on Madison in Midtown, next to the Bar-B-Q Shop. Stickem’s awesome kabobs are on the menu, and the lentil sandwich is terrific. Reverb Coffee got into the food-truck game, and Relevant Roasters opened its own coffee bar. Tamp & Tap Triad was unveiled in East Memphis.

Justin Fox Burks

Blue Nile Ethiopian Kitchen

Last year, all the action was in Overton Square. This year, one could argue, it’s South Main. The new location of Rizzo’s, after much delay, opened in March. Don’t worry, the Lobster Pronto Pups are still on the menu. The great and always-packed Maciel’s offers downtowners tacos, tortas, and more. South Main Sushi & Grill took over the Grawemeyer’s space, and there’s Ray’z World Famous Dr. Bar-b-que a few blocks north. The hipsteriffic 387 Pantry is a small, curated market with locally sourced goods like Dr. Bean’s coffee and Hanna Farm grits and cornmeal.

Justin Fox Burks

Ray’z World Famous Dr. Bar-b-que

Also new to downtown is the build-your-own tacos and burritos and nachos joint Burrito Blues (mmmm, nachos) and the Cuban and Mexican restaurant Sabrosura (try the Cuban sandwich). Jeff Johnson’s latest venture Agave Maria, with its masterful decor and endless tequila menu, opened on Union. Recommendation: the cheesy mushroom and poblano enchilada. In April, Bass Pro finally opened in the Pyramid. Uncle Buck’s, the underwater-themed restaurant with a bowling alley, offers a little something for everyone. Up top, the Lookout has one of the best views in the city.

Germantown got all the grocery stores. There’s the 1,000,000-square-foot Kroger that opened. (Actually, it’s only 100,000 square feet, but to put it in perspective, the Union Kroger is 36,000 square feet). It has a juice bar and a Corky’s BBQ kiosk. The healthy-food-at-a-discount grocer, Sprouts, after opening Lakeland, introduced its second store in Germantown. Whole Foods opened its second Memphis-area store in Germantown, too. It features a charcuterie cave, a fresh pasta station, made-fresh savory and sweet crepes, and Korean street food from Kei Jei Kitchens. (I think about the steamed bao sliders all the time.) And, in September, there was news, which seems completely unfair depending on your zip code, that the first area Trader Joe’s would open in Germantown sometime in 2016.

Breakfast for dinner? Breakfast for lunch? Breakfast for breakfast? Whenever! Another Broken Egg, a chain, opened in East Memphis. Order one of their scrambled skillets and their beignet biscuits and you’ll feel like you’ve been hit by a bus, but in the best way possible. Also in the breakfast-whenever game is the colorful, pancake-centric Staks. You can even make your own pancakes, if you’re so inclined. They also offer soups, salads, and sandwiches (including the Memphis Hot Brown).

And, and, and … There’s Mac’s Burgers with a menu filled with gourmet mac-and-cheese and burgers. Coffeehouse/gift shop City & State opened on Broad. 3 Angels Diner made way for Maximo’s on Broad. Encore Cafe offers wraps, smoothies, and salads, plus a place for Cozy Corner while it gets its building ready. Crazy Italians is owned by real-live Italians and features a menu of affordable, classic dishes like spaghetti alla carbonara. I Love Juice Bar features juices, smoothies, and essential oil shots. Mardi Gras, in Crosstown, has gotten great word-of-mouth for its Cajun fare. Diners can tour the U.S.A. at Heritage Tavern & Kitchen, which has a menu of regional favorites. Healthy, tastefully done meals are Julles Posh Food‘s focus. Ditto for LYFE Kitchen, where there’s no fryer, and it’s not missed at all.

Finally, two words: Cheesecake Factory.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Bedrock’s Pork Enchilada Omelet

When your trainer tells you to try a place that has great healthy food, you listen. That’s how I heard about Bedrock Eats and Sweets. They know that eating right can also be fun and satisfying. All of their food is organic and gluten free. 

I went with the pork enchilada omelet ($11.50). It has spiced pulled pork and caramelized onions, organic cheese, avocado and homemade enchilada sauce. Not only is this dish low-carb, it’s delicious. The pork was tender and filled with flavor. There was a lot of it too. The omelet itself was huge! There was just the right amount of cheese and it wasn’t overly gooey. As for the homemade enchilada sauce, it was light and refreshing. I couldn’t finish the whole meal and had to save the rest for later.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Bedrock Eats & Sweets and Guilt-Free Pastries.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Brandi Marter doesn’t have much time for instruction manuals. Back in 2009, she decided it was time to leave her job in medical software. So she did what anyone would do: She responded to a Craigslist ad and took a job as a pastry chef in a nursing home.

“That’s my approach,” she confesses. “I dive in, and then I have no choice but to figure it out. I have to figure it out right then.

“Thank God for YouTube,” she adds.

That might sound like an episode of I Love Lucy, but Marter made it work. Cakes turned into waffles, and before long, she was cooking Paleo food for some of the highest-performing athletes in the city. This Sunday, she will celebrate the grand opening of her new café on South Main, Bedrock Eats & Sweets.

So what’s Paleo? It’s a diet based on fruits, vegetables, nuts, and lean meats — one that cuts out things like grains, dairy, sugar, and processed foods. The name comes from Paleolithic man, and the diet is supposedly based on what our prehistoric ancestors would have eaten. But Marter says she has her doubts.

“I get really tired of the caveman thing,” she admits. “We don’t eat like cavemen. That has almost nothing to do with it.

“The main thing is, it’s gotta be fun,” she continues. “These Paleo guys will tell you we eat to fuel our bodies. But if I couldn’t have a brownie every now and then, I would quit.”

Justin Fox Burks

Bedrock’s waffles

You can taste the fun in dishes like the Peanut Butter and Banana Waffle ($8.50). Here, ingredients like organic almond flour, grass-fed butter, and coconut sugar take the place of traditional baking staples, and the results are off the hook.

Despite being gluten-free, the waffles are impossibly light and fluffy, with a nice, crunchy crust. The combination of peanut butter and maple syrup gets my vote every time. Best part? At 30 grams of protein, they’re practically a meal in themselves.

“Three years ago,” Marter recalls, “my skin was terrible, my hair was brittle, and I was about 20 pounds heavier. The worst thing was, my stomach hurt all the time.”

“But then I went Paleo,” she continues, “and then it was like, there’s this level of energy that coffee can’t even touch. You don’t want to sit on the couch. You want to get up and do things.”

Going gluten-free is like getting a tattoo — there’s usually a story involved. That’s certainly the case for Brandon Thomas. Today, at age 30, he’s a slender guy with a contemplative aspect. But when he was 16, he weighed 300 pounds.

“You remember Kenan & Kel?” Thomas asks. “The quote ‘Who loves orange soda?’ Well, that was me. I loved orange soda.”

Thomas says the turning point was coming home to take care of his parents, who suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure. Little by little, he taught himself to cook healthy. For the past year, he’s been selling gluten-free desserts at places like Stone Soup Cafe and Miss Cordelia’s. Now he’s opened his own pop-up shop, Guilt Free Pastries, just across the street from Bedrock.

I recommend starting with the Caramel Avocado Brownie ($15 for four). Avocado, you ask? Why yes. As a stand-in for butter, it helps to keep the brownies light and cakey. The vegan chocolate chips are rich and dark, and the caramel sauce — made with organic medjool dates — is (quite literally) the icing on the cake. From there, you might graduate to the Vegan Snickerdoodle Cookie Bites ($12 for four).

“She’s the most sinful,” Thomas says, gazing wantonly at a caramel brownie. “She has 90 calories.”

Ironically enough, Thomas draws inspiration from the very junk foods that used to give him so much trouble: Twinkies, cinnamon buns, MoonPies. (Actually, you wouldn’t believe how many vegan and gluten-free chefs say this kind of thing.) But Thomas says his pastries aren’t just a sweet treat: He’s trying to help people reconnect with their bodies and live better lives.

“Most of what we eat now isn’t food,” he opines. “Half of those chemicals, you can find them in spritz bottles under your sink.

“The goal is to become human again,” he continues. “I’m not trying to make millions. I’m trying to help millions.”

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Bedrock Eats To Take Over Frank’s Deli Space

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Brandi Marter

News from Taylor Berger’s site taylorberger.com: Bedrock Eats & Sweets has signed a lease for 327 S. Main, the former site of Frank’s Deli. 

Brandi Marter founded Bedrock, which provides Paleo prepared meals, grab-and-go dishes, and desserts, in 2013. She operates out of the YoLo Midtown location.

Bedrock provides protein-rich dishes, nothing processed. A sampling of meals includes brisket chili, pot roast, and lamb meatballs. 

The space on South Main will be remodeled with plans to open Bedrock in March.

From the post: 

For now, Brandi will continue to operate Bedrock out of the YoLo kitchen in Midtown. Most of her orders come from the Bedrock website, so the shift downtown won’t change most customers’ experience, except adding the new pick-up spot. Eventually, Brandi says she’d like to add counter service and cafe-style dining as well as a small community market at the South Main location. The larger space downtown will also enable her to increase production and start shipping outside the Memphis area.