Two Girls and a Whip is back, and while it looks the same from the outside, everything else has changed.

New bakers to start: Anna Beatty and Jenny Riley are the “girls” this time around.

New owners: Tyson Bridge and Jason McCollum hold the honor, making this part of the Downtown group that also has the Vault, Paramount, Backlot and Earnestine & Hazel’s, with Bridge as the only common owner across all five places.

Biggs: Soulful Food Truck Festival returns, this time at Tiger Lane

And a new menu: “It’s very important to us that people understand now we’re a bakery, not a cakery,” Riley said.

That’s what it was, what they called it, back when Mary Katherine Dunston and Courtney Lollar did the baking and Caroline and Aldo Dean owned it. They made big cakes to order and kept cupcakes and small cakes ready to grab and go.

Now you can get fresh bread at least a couple of times a week — more often as time allows — savory items such as chicken pot pie, vegetable pie, shepherd’s pie, quiche, pinwheels made with puff pastry from Lucy J’s, and Dave’s Bagels.

They’re baking cookies, from chocolate chip to oatmeal to the Kitchen Sink, which is what they call one of them.

Cheers for Beers: If there’s a bear on a bike, you’re at Hampline Brewing Co.

“These have everything,” Beatty said. “Butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, M&Ms, pretzels, who knows.”

There’s cheesecake, pie and macarons (from Dough Rye Mi). Bibby’s Bakery is supplying a line of gluten-free, sugar-free, low-carb, keto-friendly products.

And instead of cupcakes, they’ll have cake in a cup.

“Anna came up with it,” Riley said. 

It’s layers of cake and icing in a disposable 9-ounce cup.

“It’s just a parfait,” Beatty said. “It was sort of the mom in me, thinking how much easier and less messy it is for my daughter to eat it like this, but it’s also easy to get it to go, walk and eat.

“Most things we have here serve one or two people, but we can make anything whatever size you want if you order ahead. If you want a big cake, we’ll make it. A full cheesecake, we’ll make that.”

They’ll have a few outdoor tables, but there’s no room in the small shop for seating. Half the area is retail and the other is where the work happens, all in full view of passersby on South Front.

“People love to watch us work,” Riley said. “We don’t mind.”

Also at the bakery is Michael Meitzler, son of Derk Meitzler, chef/co-owner of Paramount, Backlot and Earnestine & Hazel’s. He bakes the brownies (oops, forgot them in the list above) and the cloverleaf rolls that are served at Paramount.

Table Talk: Even institutions change, and recipes appear from unlikely places

“He threw them together, went home, fed them to Papa Derk and that was it,” Beatty said. “We make all the baked goods at Paramount, so we have a revenue stream there. We do the rolls, the banana cream pie, biscuit bread pudding, butterscotch shortcake and soon we’re going to make a s’mores tartlet.”

Bridge and McCollum purchased Two Girls and Whip, which closed in 2020, in January.

“It was a turnkey business, but we had so many other things going on, like getting Backlot and Paramount open,” Beatty said. “After that happened, I was able to get down here and then I was able to talk Jenny into joining me.”

The two women met at L’ Ecole Culinaire in 2011. They’d both spent their careers in restaurants and wanted to go to cooking school.

“I started in the food industry when I was 15 years old,” Beatty said. “At 28, I decided to go to L’Ecole and get a degree for validation.”

Afterward, she started catering and was overwhelmed. She pulled back briefly, then threw herself in, often working at two and three restaurants at a time. Before COVID, she was at Tamboli’s, then went to work for Bridge’s group.

Riley went to the kitchen at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for an externship, Shotwell Candy Co., taught at L’Ecole and Arkansas State University, then to Lucy J’s in Crosstown and to Crave bakery in Arlington, which is where she was when Beatty called.

“I remain good friends with (the people) at Lucy J’s and I believe so much in their mission that I want to see them do well,” Riley said.

Table Talk: Even institutions change, and recipes appear from unlikely places

Two Girls and a Whip will donate some proceeds to Lucy J’s and to Merge Memphis, a charitable act that’s important to both women. Beatty also worked at Caritas Village, and wants the bakery to have a similar sense of purpose.

“We lost Caritas and Inspire Café had to shut down for a while,” Beatty said. “When we were approached about the bakery, I jumped at it. I see it as a way to start growing a community.”

Hampline Brewing now expanding after 2020 pivot

There’s more to come. The menu will change as needed, for variety, seasonally, and to use what they have on hand. Full coffee service will be available soon, but it’s not ready just yet. The equipment isn’t in. And there’s this, too.

“We have to learn how to use it,” Riley said. “Neither one of us knows.”

The bakery opens at noon on Sept. 21 at 363 S. Front, then will be open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday thereafter. Call 901-472-2253.