Everyone could use a little extra sweetness in their lives-it makes an often difficult world a little softer and kinder. Fortunately for Memphis-area residents, Leilani Evans and her family are bringing an entirely new way to enjoy a sweet treat to the region with their bakery Barefruit Cafe, which specializes in cronuts and is set to open soon.
Barefruit Cafe will be setting up shop in a 1,200 square foot storefront at 6240 Chester Street in Arlington. Co-owner Leilani Evans kindly set aside some time to fill What Now Memphis in on all the news that’s fit to print about Barefruit Cafe’s upcoming storefront. “No one else is doing them here.” she says, explaining why she decided to focus on cronuts. “We’ve had them in Nashville; they’re around in New York, Atlanta, and South Carolina, but we wanted to give people the opportunity to try them here locally. We’re excited to be the first ones to bring them here.”
Evans and her family have been running Barefruit Cafe as a mobile and wholesale operation for a while now. She explains that the decision to open a brick and mortar was a bit of a leap of faith, bolstered by enthusiastic supporters. She states: “Through prayer, is the number 1 reason why we’ve chosen now. We’ve done this mobilely for the past year and a half now. We’ve had a really sweet support system from the community and everything’s continuing to go well in this regard. We prayed that the Lord would show us the timing and this little spot in Arlington became available. We prayed through it and the doors just continued to open. It’s been a pretty smooth transition.”
Evans co-owns the bakery with her husband and their children. The family wants Barefruit Cafe to feel like a welcome little discovery, right in the Arlington community. She explains that the inspiration for the bakery’s design came from their shared adventures, saying: “My husband and I and our family, we love to travel. One of our favorite things to do is find cute, aesthetic friendly little food places. A lot of our inspiration is drawn from coastal vibes. Our color palette is seafoam and coral, more neutral tones. We’re just really excited to create a space that makes you feel like you’re going on vacation, searching for that cute, fun little bakery spot. We’re really excited at how the space has turned out.”
Of course nothing enhances a pastry quite like a good cup of java, and Barefruit Cafe has customers covered. “We’ll have a coffee menu.” Evans says. “We’re partnering with Dr. Beans, a local roaster in downtown Memphis. We’ll have a variety of seasonal lattes that will rotate throughout the year. We’ll also offer a matcha and chai option.”
Evans states that Barefruit will primarily focus on grab-and-go options, as a start, but will have limited seating-and she holds out hope for expansion in the future. “Our hearts and our hope is that maybe this is just the next stepping stone because there is not much seating here at all.” she states. “We would have loved to offer a space that has a lot of seating. For now we’ll just have a few seats near the window and we’re aiming to get a few tables and chairs right outside.”
Barefruit Cafe is on track for an early November opening. Future regulars can follow the bakery’s Instagram page for updates.
The seed for Barefruit Cafe was planted long ago, and Evans and her family are excited to see it take root and reach its final form. She states: “We’ve had this name picked out for almost 10 years. It stems from John 15:8. Originally when we first had the dream and prayer of doing a coffee shop or cafe one day, we thought we might do acai bowls so we were trying to do a double meaning there. We’ve had it for a long time, kind of tucked away. With most all of our products, we are using high quality and as often as possible locally sourced ingredients, still trying to tie in that barefruit.”
