ORANGE PARK – Sister Barbara Tharp and Kelsie Willoughby run Wicked Batter Café, where a sweet smell of confectionary – and success – hits you at the door.
It opened last December at 997 …
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ORANGE PARK – Sister Barbara Tharp and Kelsie Willoughby run Wicked Batter Café, where a sweet smell of confectionary – and success – hits you at the door.
It opened last December at 997 Blanding Blvd. after a lengthy construction process, with no loans or outside investors. Tharp said she had 24 years of experience in restaurant business. Willoughby has about 12. Tharp’s husband Timothy is a co-owner.
If it’s a baked good, Wicked Batter probably makes it from scratch.
Tharp said she felt most restaurants defrost food and heat it up. Not many places make things from scratch, she said, and bakeries are few and far between in the county.
“I grew up up north,” Tharp said. “(Bakeries) are everywhere.”
One of Wicked Batter’s main draws they stumbled onto by accident.
Keto is a popular diet gaining prominence: it’s essentially high-fat, low carb and low sugar products. Tharp and Willoughby received a keto order and had extras. Demand then rose from word of mouth.
Tharp said keto products are hard to find in the region.
“Six hours go north, south, east or west, you can’t find another keto bakery,” Tharp said. “You know with desserts, carbs and sugar are the two biggest components, so it’s a big stressor for a lot of people. The cool thing is a lot of diabetic people can eat it.”
Wicked Batter is entertaining the idea of shipping keto products nationally.
“I think people are going to start a riot if we don’t,” Willoughby said.
Tharp said Clay County residents shouldn’t have to drive 45 minutes for a bakery in Jacksonville. The café’s community outreach, from baking cakes for foster children’s birthdays next month or sponsoring school sports teams, was a key element.
“We came here on purpose. We wanted Orange Park to have something unique, so you didn’t have to drive to Riverside, San Marco or the St. Johns Town Center,” Tharp said. “We get a lot of people who are like, ‘I’m so excited, you’re so close!’ We really wanted to get back to the old school, community café, restaurant kind of feel.”
A plan to expand Wicked Batter’s reach is in order. Willoughby called Wicked Batter’s format inexpensive and easy to replicate. Tharp added that franchising was an option from the beginning, but thanks to word of mouth and repeat customers, it’s closer to reality.
“We had projections for how we’d do, but we really surprised ourselves,” Tharp said.