As a non-vegan, non-gluten-free, sugar-craving pastry fanatic, the last thing I want to see when visiting a new doughnut shop is the word "Paleo." You want to eat like a caveman? Cool! Strap on your loincloth and go hunt a mammoth — just keep your meaningless food trend away from my desserts.
Yet there it was, that word — P-A-L-E-O — proudly displayed behind the very same glass that was shielding me from licking the rest of Five Daughters Bakery's otherwise very un-Paleo pastries, which were lined up in tempting flavors like chocolate raspberry, cherry rhubarb, chocolate hazelnut and vanilla sugar.
My mind reeled. I wanted to scream, "I'm sorry, I thought I walked into a bakery, not some L.A. juice bar that sells Moon Dust!" But I needed to have an open mind. After all, despite having existed since just last year, Five Daughters Bakery is hugely popular, and for good reason. Their original location inside The Factory at Franklin is often so busy it has to turn folks away, especially on Saturdays. Now the same is true for their new 12South shop, which opened less than a month ago in a house behind Mafiaoza's. The sign on their door says they're open until 5 p.m. on weeknights, but they've been so busy that they've run out of doughnuts as early as 1 p.m.
And it's not just empty buzz that convinces fans to line up — these sugar-covered, Cronut-like clouds made of laminated dough and fried to golden, tender perfection are as delicious as all the fuss would lead you to believe. But making something tasty out of butter and sugar is easy, and on my latest visit to Five Daughters' newest shop, I didn't need to confirm what I already knew. If anyone could make a Paleo doughnut taste delicious, it's Five Daughters. So on a whim, I decided to put them to the ultimate test.
"Can I get one of the honey pistachio, uh ... Paleo doughnuts?" I begrudgingly asked the smiling young woman behind the counter, nearly choking on my words.
I expected her to gawk — I thought she'd lecture me on how those are just for show and no one actually comes to Five Daughters for a doughnut that is "completely free of grains, gluten, dairy and sugars." But she just smiled and chirped back, "Of course!"
Upon close examination, it looked enough like a doughnut — it had a hole in the middle and was decorated with fluffy white frosting, green bits of crushed pistachio and a pretty drizzle of golden honey. Even so, I couldn't take the first bite — I asked a co-worker who is a self-proclaimed "healthy junk-food junkie" to give it a go.
"It's good!" she said. Her eyes looked sincere — she wasn't playing a trick on me. "You should try it!" So I did.
And it was good! I mean, a traditional Five Daughters doughnut is so much better, yes, but this nutty, dense ring wasn't bad at all. It was quite a bit lighter than any other Paleo treat I've dared try, and unlike, say, those Caveman Cookies they sell at Turnip Truck, this didn't have a texture like boogers (blech). Well done, Five Daughters.
Just two blocks up the street sits another new dessert shop. Sprinkles, a cupcake chain out of Southern California, opened its first Tennessee location in 12South in December, offering cupcakes, cookies and ice cream (and none of it Paleo-friendly).
While the cupcakes and cookies are good (especially the Salted Oatmeal Cornflake cookie — it's chewy, salty perfection), there isn't anything especially remarkable about what they offer. Frankly, Cupcake Collection and The Sweet Stash are better. In this case, the most exciting thing about yet another cupcake shop opening in Nashville is the fact that these goodies are accessible any hour of the day. If you want a cupcake after a late-night movie or even at 3 a.m. on your way home from the bar (that's normal, right?), you can have one by way of Sprinkles' famous Cupcake ATM. Even if the shop is closed for a night, you can simply place your order on the touch screen and slip your money into the pink machine, and a robot arm will deliver your cupcake, all boxed up and ready to go. The fact that these machines aren't placed all over the city is a shame.
So if Five Daughters can make you stick to your sugar-free fad diet and Sprinkles can give you a treat at 3 a.m., there's one thing neither offer: a place to sit. And that's where the Goo Goo Shop's new addition, the Goo Goo Dessert Bar, comes in.
The Goo Goo Dessert Bar, which will stay open until 8 p.m. seven nights a week, boasts half a dozen tables with a view of the Cumberland, so you don't have to get your dessert to go. And you'll want to take your time with these desserts. Everything on the menu is inspired by the beloved chocolate-covered candy mounds, from the Clark Street Original Cheesecake (which is giant) to the Honky Tonk Blonde sundae (which starts with a brown-butter blondie that has chunks of Goo Goo Supreme baked into it and is topped with a sprinkle of sea salt, a scoop of ice cream, salted caramel, whipped cream and a cherry — it's as potent as it sounds).
At last, our nightmare is over — Nashville's dearth of bakeries and sweet shops that are open past 5 p.m. has come to an end. Now if only we could put a knife through the heart of the Paleo trend.
Email Arts@nashvillescene.com
