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Food & Drink Food Reviews

Bringing Home the Bakin’

The Sweetlife Bakery is moving into the Cooper-Young neighborhood with its sights set on breakfast delights and late-night decadence.

“There’s no place to go after dinner for a good dessert,” says Jason Doty, who is opening Sweetlife with his girlfriend Catherine Bauer. Doty says the two are tired of choosing from the same four desserts at many restaurants.

“Tiramisu, cheesecake, molten chocolate cake, and lemon icebox pie,” Doty says, rattling off the list automatically.

The closest thing to a bona-fide dessert shop in Cooper-Young was Sweet Bistro, which closed in 2009.

Now Doty and Bauer want to bring variety back to the dessert tray: plated desserts, pies, homemade ice creams, dessert bars, pie milkshakes (like his peach cobbler shake with Ripley peaches), cookies, and the already famous “Hot Mess,” a deconstructed pie or cake served in a mason jar.

“You should see our house right now,” Doty says with an exhausted smile. “We have three big chalkboards with an amazing menu outline that we have to whittle down.”

Breakfast pastry-lovers are also on the Sweetlife’s radar. Doty and Bauer are working on perfecting recipes for muffins, brioche cheese danishes, sweet rolls, and donuts. Locally owned J. Brooks Coffee is developing a special blend for the bakery.

“We’ll have very basic espresso drinks and coffee,” Doty says. “I want people to come and be able to sit down with their pastries and have a cup of coffee.”

But with Java Cabana, a venerated anchor of the Cooper-Young community, across the street, Doty has decided to keep his drinks menu limited. He also plans to prepare some specialty desserts, like biscotti and date bars, exclusively for the neighboring coffee shop.

The Sweetlife will be housed in a former office space on Young and, in addition to the bakery, will include a retail space for local food items and a dining area. Doty is also building out the front parking lot as a patio space for outdoor seating, and Mary Phillips of Farm Girl Food Gardens will be planting raised beds around the building for herbs and flowers.

The two things Doty is clear about are his love for local products (the bakery uses Rock Springs Dairy milk and butter and hopes to use its own homegrown herbs) and his devotion to keeping his menu items new, fresh, and different — always according to customer demands.

“Last week, I asked all of our Facebook fans to taste-test cookies. I baked a hundred cookies and delivered them around town,” Doty says.

Construction on the new bakery begins this week, and Doty holds October 1st as a tentative opening date. The shop will be open every day at 7 a.m. and will close at 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and at midnight on Friday and Saturday.

The Sweetlife Bakery, 2185 Young

tslbakery.com

Just about given up on finding good bagels in Memphis? Good news: Sharon’s Chocolates & Bread Café in Chickasaw Crossing has a new menu offering, and you can bet it goes well with cream cheese.

That’s right. New York-style bagels, chewy and crispy at the same time, are now available every Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

“It’s like what I used to have as a kid growing up in Brooklyn,” owner Michael Fajans says.

Though their chocolates and take-and-bake pizzas have been the strongest sellers, Fajans hopes to fill the bagel void in Memphis. Admittedly, Memphis hasn’t been much of a bagel town, which means Sharon’s has some convincing to do. But these freshly made bagels (in plain, poppy seed, onion, sesame seed, and everything) are so far above any variety you get at the grocery store, they very well might be the next big Saturday brunch treat.

Sharon’s Chocolates & Bread Café, 2881 Poplar (324-4422)

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Chew On This

Few things rival the smell of bread baking or the visual treat of chocolate truffles lined up in a display case. Sharon’s Chocolates & Bread Café in Chickasaw Crossing has brought together this power couple.

You may remember owners Michael and Sharon Fajans from local farmers markets — particularly the one at the Botanic Garden. Now the two have put their roots down in a permanent location.

Each morning, Michael makes specialty breads, such as bulgur wheat and rosemary, multigrain and dried fruit, or Guinness and fennel. He also makes the croissant dough from scratch, as well as all the pastry creams and the pâte à choux. His farmers market favorite, focaccia, will be available in a variety of flavors, in addition to wonderful chewy baguettes (European-style with a strong crust), Italian bread, Sicilian-style pizzas, and ciabatta. Sandwiches with homemade meatballs and sausage (made from Donnell Farms beef and locally sourced pork), salads, and lasagna will make up the lunch menu.

Sharon’s serves Memphis-roasted Ugly Mug coffee and will offer a small number of teas from Stash. Sweets include éclairs, cannolis, cheesecakes, brownies, tiramisu, Boston cream pies, cupcakes, baked donuts, and, of course, Sharon’s chocolates.

What makes Sharon’s chocolates unique is the tempered chocolate she uses to make a crisp shell for the truffle, which plays nicely off the smooth filling. Tempered chocolate also gives the truffles their smooth sheen, making them all the more irresistible in the display case. Although the flavors will change, original dark chocolate truffles (roughly shaped like real rooted truffles and dusted with cocoa), a strawberry champagne truffle topped with a candied lilac petal, and a dark chocolate passion-fruit truffle were a few I tasted on my visit. They also have a number of different chocolate barks with nuts and fruit.

Sharon and Michael met in Manhattan and worked together in a pizza joint there in the early ’90s. Michael has been baking bread for 35 years, and Sharon has worked as a chocolatier for 15-plus years. They make their products without preservatives and with as many local ingredients as possible. And just like any good, old-fashioned bakery, Michael says, “When we run out of bread, we’ll be out of it.”

Since the café is still fairly new, the hours are subject to change, but for now Sharon’s is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Sharon’s Chocolates & Bread Café, 2881 Poplar (324-4422)

The building at 2021 Madison near Overton Square hasn’t been occupied for almost 10 years, so Memphians were understandably excited about the prospect of a new tenant. On February 16th, an Irish pub will take up residence in the corner spot. The Dublin House will be as authentic an Irish pub as possible, says owner Jody Clark. “My bar manager and another bartender are actually from Ireland,” she says.

Besides the wall décor (much of it from Ireland), the Dublin House will serve Magners Cider, Guinness, Harp, and Smithwicks on tap for $3.75. Domestics will be available by the bottle for $2.75 (or $1.75 during happy hour, 4 to 7 p.m.). As for Irish food, they’ll offer a variety of roasted meats — chicken, pork, beef, and lamb — and an open-face Reuben sandwich. More traditional bar food will include beef, chicken, and portabella sliders and other American-style appetizers.

Clark says the entire space was renovated, leaving only the walls from the former restaurant, Melos Taverna.

The Dublin House will be open from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m. during the week and from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Food prices range from $8 to $12, and the kitchen will serve food from open to close every day.

The Dublin House, 2021 Madison (278-0048)