Tallahassee has a sweet tooth
When visiting Tallahassee, it’s important to remember a toothbrush, because the menus there think sugar is a food group.
There’s nothing wrong with dessert on any menu, of course, but the sweet side of things have invaded the rest of the menu in Florida’s capital city.
That’s not a bad thing, even though on the surface it might seem strange.
Take one of the city’s signature sweet options: the peanut butter hamburger. Spearheaded by city restaurateurs Matthew and Adam Wells, you can test your taste buds with versions of this patty at both Midtown Caboose (midtowncaboose.com) or Wells Brothers Bar and Grill (wellsbrothersbarandgrill.com). It features cheddar cheese, bacon, creamy peanut butter and is served on a kaiser roll. Midtown Caboose also has a couple of other sweet-side burgers: one called The Runaway Train with maple mayo, sharp cheddar, carmelized granny smith apples; another called the S’more Than Words, with graham cracker-encrusted meat with melted marshmallow and dark chocolate, more bacon of course and served on warm cocoa bread.
They’ve also got a Monte Cristo, which shows up on a lot of menus in Tallahassee, such as Canopy Road Cafe (canopyroadcafe.com). With four locations around the city, it’s an always-crowded diner that only serves breakfast and lunch. (In fact, you’ll find that a lot in Tallahassee with many independent operations choosing either only daytime meals or simply dinner).
But as far as sweet breakfast options go, at least one menu item among Canopy Road’s options seems to fit in perfectly with the college crowd: the Cap’n Crunch French Toast, battered and rolled in Crunch Berries and topped with strawberries, blueberries, bananas and a vanilla glaze. Seems like the ending after a hard night of studying, or other notable college-age activities.
While Canopy Road has enough sweet options to drown Augustus Gloop, head over to The Bada Bean Coffee & Tea Company (thebadabean.com) for one of the sweetest breakfast options in town: cinnamon roll French toast. This is a giant, sticky, mount-watering cinnamon roll split in half and coated with a vanilla-cinnamon egg dip and served with cinnamon butter and powdered sugar. But wait! There’s more! Be sure to ask for a side of the cream cheese frosting, because that’s a signature slather here as well.
Moving past breakfast to dessert, the city’s No. 1 destination for ice cream is up near Interstate 10, an operation called Lofty Pursuits (loftypursuits.com). This place literally can serve you ice cream in a kitchen sink, a food challenge item that features 26 scoops of ice cream served in a stainless steel sink. That’s more than a gallon. Challengers who can finish the ice cream, which also has every topping, in less than two hours, can join Lofty Pursuits’ Hall of Fame. The $69 menu item can also be shared by up to 14 people.
Most, though, will opt for smaller fare, and there’s plenty to choose from on the classic soda fountain’s 12-page menu. In addition to ice cream and sundaes, it features shakes, handmade sodas, floats, malts, freezes, yips (freezes and yips both use seltzer water instead of milk for mixing; a freeze uses sorbet, while a yip can be any flavor of ice cream). The ice cream, though, is the main draw with a selection of nearly 200 flavors in rotation.
There’s at least one sizable traditional afterdinner dessert in town worth mentioning: the Minnie Edison Bread Pudding, a giant sweet ending made with white chocolate, candied pecans, caramel and vanilla ice cream at The Edison (edisontally.com), the converted power plant building in Cascades Park near downtown. The restaurant that tries to offer up menu items from all over the state also has a Banyan Tree Key Lime Pie, Strawberryfest Trifle and Magic City Cake, but the bread pudding, named after inventor Thomas Edison’s wife, is a tasty monster if you’ve got the stomach space.
Now a college town like Tallahassee also has its fair share of beer and pizza, and the sweet tooth can be found here as well. Just south of downtown in Railroad Square Arts Park is the expanded Proof Brewing Company (proofbrewingco.com). As many good microbrew operations do, Proof experiments with some sweet additions to its concoctions including the Mango Wit, a Belgian witbier; Creatures in the Dark Stout, made with cocoa nibs and whole vanilla beans; and the Ghost Totem Porter, a creamy option with espresso and toffee flavors.
The sweet things in Tallahassee are hiding in the corners of nearly every menu, although like Lofty Pursuits, there’s plenty that specialize in it. Popular dessert venues include The Cake Shop (tallahasseecakeshop.com), Treva’s Pastries and Fine Foods (trevas.net), Dipped (dippedwpensacolast.com), Barb’s Southern Style Gourmet Brittles (barbsbrittles.com), Mayhem Sweets & Treats (mayhemsweets.wixsite.com), Insomnia Cookies (insomniacookies.com), Lucy and Leo’s Cupcakery (lucyandleoscupcakery.com) and Sugar Rush Bar (shopsugarrush.com).