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Dempsey club sandwich with chips + Enlarge

Specialty eating. It’s all the rage. Organic. Gluten-free. Nut-free. Vegetarian and vegan. Dairy-free. Food sensitivities and food allergies. So it goes.

Admittedly, I view all of this with a raised eyebrow. I mean, tapioca-free? Is that really a thing? (Yes, I know it is.) I’m also strangely empathetic when it comes to food allergies, sufferings of celiac disease and the like. I love food and try eating relatively healthy. But how I do love a rare steak, pasta covered in a rich cream sauce or even movie theater popcorn slathered in science-made butter. So I feel slightly sorry for people who can’t indulge in foods containing nuts or dairy, or foods with gluten. (Oh, especially beer!)

Still, I’m also curious about all this so let’s just say I’ve dabbled in this specialty-eating rage, discovering some food items I like — a vegetarian Swiss chard, ricotta and pine nut tart — and some I despise — vegetarian sausage or many gluten-free baked goods, and all gluten-free beers. But after eating at downtown Little Rock’s relatively new Dempsey Bakery, I can see myself experimenting more. (They have this monkey bread that is gluten-, egg- and dairy-free, and it is absolutely one of the greatest things I’ve ever tasted. It’s got things like sorghum flour, arrowroot starch and palm shortening in it. It’s a burning-bush kind of conversion in loaf form.)

Dempsey calls itself a gluten-free and specialty bakery, offering cakes, pies, cookies, breads and more that are all gluten-free, but sometime egg-, dairy-, soy- and tapioca-free. Some items are vegetarian and some even vegan. And about a month ago, Dempsey started offering gluten-free lunch items — sandwiches and soups — including vegan black bean soup and white chicken chili, sandwiches from a club to a muffaletta to a Reuben, and pot pies. And there is the bakery as well. Cooking up fresh, delicious items like that decadent monkey bread, and various other breads — pumpkin bread and lemon tea cake — and other dessert treats such as sugar and lemon-drop cookies, chocolate cheesecakes and more. The pleasures are in an enclosed glass case right where one orders lunch so that diners will be tempted to indulge.

Beyond the daily lunch menu, sweets and breads, Dempsey also offers pot pies frozen for taking home and warming, along with several refrigerated soups, breads, pizza crusts, cookie doughs and buns.

The bakery — located next to Diamond Bear Brewing Company — is neat and orderly. With its sharp red-and-white color scheme dominating the atmosphere in a very welcoming way, from the checkered floor to the Dempsey logo. (Which, by the way, should win someone a design prize somewhere. It’s clean but solid.) There are a few lightly colored wooden tables with white chairs to the side of the bakery opposite the door, and the whole front of the building is glass, allowing a view of a credit union and a parking lot, but also a ton of natural light. It’s a cozy enough space, and a half wall closes the area off from the bustle of the bakery in back.

THE DISH: OUR REVIEW

Chicken Pot Pie ($8.50): The very words “chicken pot pie” conjure images of childhood, impatiently waiting for a freezer-aisle bought chicken pot pie to cook. (This is pre-microwavable chicken pot pie era, when an oven-warmed chicken pot pie took 45 minutes or more to fully heat.) Fortunately, Dempsey’s chicken pot pie doesn’t take 45 minutes for preparation, and also fortunately (and not surprisingly) surpasses any notion of a store-bought pie. It’s a hearty dish, larger than the usual pot pie, and stuffed with perfectly cooked chunks of white and dark (Yes!) chicken, and vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and more. The thick, creamy broth is savory, and the vegetables and chicken are delicious. The crust is gluten-free and was a little gritty, but the herbs in the crust provided a pleasant shot of flavor. (ss)

Dempsey Club Sandwich with chips ($9.50): This sandwich on toasted gluten-free, dairy-free bread had garlic aioli with cayenne, tomatoes, spring greens, Applegate turkey and ham, bacon and Boars Head provolone and cheddar cheeses. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, it was a can’t-miss combination. The cayenne and garlic spiced up the aioli and perfectly complemented the bacon and fresh tomato. Though it couldn’t help but leave me with garlic breath. I snagged a few samples of gluten-free baked goods in an attempt to tamp it down. With all of those ingredients, the sandwich had the potential to get out of hand, but the thick slices of housemade bread kept everything together as much as could be expected. (mt)

Vegan Black Bean Soup ($4.50): While the vegan black bean soup may be lacking in gluten, meat and dairy ingredients, it is brimming with flavor. Filled with chunky tomatoes, black beans, celery and onions, there’s definitely more to it than broth. But the broth could stand alone. The most adamant carnivore could be swayed by this soup’s heartiness. And a thick slice of Dempsey’s better-than-your-average-bread (the vegan, gluten-free Everyone Bread) makes this dish a meal. (sb)

Vegan Pot Pie ($8.50): Second only to a steaming bowl of soup, a pot pie is the perfect (and hard to find outside of the frozen food section at the supermarket) mood-elevating antidote to a cold and rainy day. The vegan pot pie is about as big as a personal pan pizza — the perfectly-sized lunch. The gluten-free crust has a bit of a puzzling texture, but the contents, a stew-y mixture of onions, carrots and celery, hit the spot the way a down-home pot pie should. (sb)

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RESTAURANT INFO:

LOCATION: 323 Cross St., Little Rock

PHONE: (501) 375-2257

WEBSITE: dempseybakery.com (under construction) or find them on Facebook

DINING HOURS: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday

PRICES: $1.25 to $9.50

ALCOHOL: None

IN A NUTSHELL: This downtown bakery is moving beyond its cookies, breads and desserts beginning with a lunch menu that includes sandwiches, soups and other light-lunch goodies. Of course, the lunch menu is still gluten-free (after all, the bakery bills itself as a “gluten-free specialty bakery”) and filled with vegetarian and vegan options as well.