August is a month full of special occasions that highlight sweet treats. From National Raspberry Cream Pie Day to National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, National Smores Day and National Lemon Meringue Pie Day, there are plenty of opportunities to sink your teeth into something tasty and plenty of places around Enid to find such delicacies. Four shops in particular offer not only sweet treats but a look behind the counter at the beginnings and missions behind the baking.

FARMHOUSE FRESH

It’s rare to find delicious food that’s good for you and even more rare to find delicious food from farm-fresh ingredients, but both are the staples of the menu at Farmhouse Fresh Coffee Shop and Deli.

Since 2018, Farmhouse Fresh has been serving specials on its daily-changing menu made from scratch with ingredients raised on the 500-acre family farm or bought from farmers to put into handed-down recipes that have stood the test of time. As one might imagine, this is no small endeavor but for the Rink family a way of life that has grown to serve its customers their very best.

 “We were on the forefront of buy fresh, buy local,” Paulette Rink, owner of Farmhouse Fresh, says. “We’ve been doing this for about 30 years before it was even popular, trying to direct products from our farm to people who would be interested in buying it to give them something quality, something good and something they wouldn’t find many other places.”

The Rink family began selling their farm-fresh goods in larger cities across the state before hitting the road in a bus fashioned with freezers, dehydrators and refrigerators to process their fresh produce and bring them to more locations anywhere they stopped. Rink says the bus and eventual storefront that came to Enid in 2018 helped alleviate the problem of ways to grow the family business and make it more sustainable, which was compounded when they began putting their produce into meals and marketing that side of the business into what would become the Farmhouse Fresh Coffee Shop and Deli.

 Of course, it takes more than ingredients to create a quality meal that leaves customers coming back and wanting more, which again was a family effort. Rink says she grew up learning to cook, preserve and save with her grandma, who also ran a restaurant and passed down many recipes Rink uses today along with some of her own modifications to provide full vegan and gluten-free menus that give customers healthy options.

“I’ve spent a lot of time developing recipes with healthier ingredients that still taste good or even better than the original,” Rink says. “Frito chili pie, taco salad and even cinnamon rolls sound ordinary until you’ve tried ours and can tell there’s something different in them that makes them taste great, and we’re glad to say it’s healthier for them.”

Farmhouse Fresh Coffee Shop and Deli offers organic teas and coffees, healthy lunch specials, homespun sweets like their signature cinnamon rolls, and even more a peace of mind that what you eat doesn’t just taste wholesome, but is, from the ingredients to the hands that prepare it.

FIVE80

It takes only a couple steps into the Five80 Coffeehouse to realize something is different.

It’s not the draft of fresh coffee or the sweet scent of cinnamon rolls or caramelitas made with love by baker Mary Jantz, but it’s a look around at the doctors and judges, homeless and broken enjoying their visit and being served by people who genuinely care.

The Five80 Coffeehouse opened its doors in 2011 as a high-end coffee shop and hub of Forgotten Ministries with the business model for its customers to pay as they could, accepting pay-it-forward donations to cover others’ meals while offering free water, tea, coffee and even lunches to those who couldn’t afford it. Over the years, the Five80 Coffeehouse has seen minor changes in its model and menu but lives on its same mission from day one: to drive back the darkness with the light of Jesus.

Jeremiah Herrian, owner of Five80 Coffeehouse and Forgotten Ministries with his wife Sarah, says the inspiration for the shop and ministry came after experiencing Jesus for himself and wanting to share that hope with others. The former California surfer and pro beach volleyball player did ministry on Skid Row in Los Angeles which propelled him to want to reach others with the hope that saved him back at his roots in Northwest Oklahoma to prevent Skid Row from happening there, especially to the ones who might already feel like they’re at Skid Row.

“I’ve knocked on enough doors to find that all towns have elements of Skid Row just hidden and behind closed doors rather than open in the streets like L.A.,” Herrian says. “The only way to prevent it is to get the church outside of its four walls and to take the Gospel of Jesus to where the broken, lost and hurting are at to give them a chance at something different. It’s what changed my life and can change anyone’s life.”

 Ricky Chance, manager of Five80 Coffeehouse, says the logo behind Forgotten Ministries is “the church has left the building” which is the mission behind each of the ministry’s outlets such as the coffeehouse for its servers to be ambassadors for Christ in hands-on settings and equip churches to go out and be the same.

 “Our goal at Forgotten Ministries is to mobilize the local church to get them out of their building and into their streets working as the Acts 2 church did with each other and in the community,” Chance says. “The idea is that we want to get out here to people and meet them where they’re at instead of expecting them to come to where we’re at. Nowadays people don’t come to churches, so we want to meet them where they are and that’s what we do at Forgotten.”

Putting their goal into practice, the Five80 Coffeehouse keeps its doors open when others close during holidays or harsh weather to provide a place for those who need one and serve them as they are, whether upper class or homeless.

“That’s what we’re all about,” Herrian says. “The heart of Five80 Coffeehouse is not about coffee, but is for the broken, for the lost and for those without Jesus.”

KATY’S PANTRY

Katy’s Pantry isn’t just another shop – it’s a signature to Enid in more ways than one.

The 2023 “Best Bakery” winner has employed and served generations in the Enid community since it opened in 1978 for the purpose of being a place friends and family could gather and enjoy a piece of pie. Since that first day, Katy’s Pantry has moved and expanded to serve much more than pie, but it hasn’t changed a bit from being a place friends and family come to share memories and flavorful experiences.

Jenger Baker, owner of Katy’s Pantry, says the shop was opened after her parents and their friends realized after gatherings that there wasn’t a place to enjoy a good piece of pie, so they told her mom, Katy, that she should open one. From that first suggestion and ever since, Baker says, the business has been a family endeavor, equipping generations of family and friends who came together to build the building, make pies and create the cozy environment found at Katy’s Pantry.

The shop opened with just 8 tables and a simple menu, Baker says, but it quickly became a favorite in the Enid community with the signature flavors and personal love put into every meal.

“My mom put in hours every day at the shop baking, serving customers and working hard to make Katy’s Pantry special for everyone who came in and worked there,” Baker says. “To this day, we have employees that feel like family and customers that come in with their kids and grandkids now who grew up with us, and it makes it a very personal and special place to us.”

In addition to warm hospitality, Katy’s Pantry is also known in Enid for delicious delicacies. Everything off the menu comes from recipes that are also a family endeavor, Baker says, tweaked over the years to create an original taste.

“We enjoy trying every bakery and café we can find because we’re always baking,” Baker says. “We enjoy trying flavors of different places and creating ideas from there of things we could add that our customers would enjoy back home. We’ve learned we have a different flavor palette but enjoy looking for that real powerful taste.”

While many families have grown up with warm memories and delicious treats at Katy’s Pantry, the doors are always open and welcome the newcomer to have a place to make sweet memories, try a homemade delicacy or just gather with friends to enjoy a piece of pie.

DONNA JEANS’S BAKERY

What’s in a name?

Behind Donna Jean’s Bakery is more than sweets, but a woman, story of forgiveness, and mission to treat others with love and kindness.

Donna Jean’s Bakery, runner-up for 2023 best bakery in Enid, opened February 15, 2023 to serve its first set of customers: the wife, son and parents of the man who killed the owner’s mother in a drunk driving accident in 2018, and offer them as much as all following customers more than a meal, but Christ’s love and forgiveness.

Effie Babcock, owner of Donna Jean’s Bakery, says she always dreamed of owning a bakery, but her dream and reality became far different. After her mother passed away, Babcock says she faced challenges to open the bakery at every turn from renovating their building to having a car crash into it and personal health issues that made the dream challenging.

Despite the hardship and challenges, Babcock says she is thankful to have had friends and family come alongside her to not only open Donna Jean’s Bakery, but fill it with mouthwatering specialties, a family feel and contagious love they want to pass on to their customers.

“We have really great staff, and I’m thankful and humbled by everyone who is here,” Babcock says. “I don’t think we’ll ever get rich from this business, but if I can be a light for Christ and offer people hope and treat people the way I’d want to be treated and our staff treat people the way they’d want to be treated, then I’d say we’re making a step in the right direction.”

In light of the 2018 tragedy, Babcock decided to name and embody the environment of the bakery in memory of her mother, the woman who raised Babcock to love the Lord, served others as a nurse for 40 years and led by example a life of compassion and forgiveness.

“My mother’s faith was very important to her and having raised me, my faith in Christ is very important to me,” Babcock says. “My hope is to be a light for Christ and my dream is that I can have a place to bake my goods where people can come and not just have another meal, but sense a kind of hope and love and good environment that they can sit in and just enjoy being in here. Being a light for Christ is very important to me, so I think if I can bless people and fill their tummy at the same time that’s good and what I want to do.”

Donna Jean’s Bakery is a place not just to find something sweet to eat, but a sweet environment marked with love and a light that shines in the brightest days and darkest ones.

Sometimes the best part of a shop really is behind the counter.

Whether that be in finding wholesome ingredients, reaching the lost and broken, building relationships or being a light, every shop offers something special beyond its menu. For these shops in particular, their sweetest specialty just may not be on a plate, but in how they serve Enid and make it a better community, one customer at a time.