Fit Joy

There is a reason that I have an entire day of the week on my blog (Fridays, if you haven't caught on!) dedicated to reviewing snack foods.  A simple reason: I eat a lot of snacks and love trying new things.  Somewhere along the way, I picked up some products from Fit Joy.

"We like to let everyone in on the deliciousness. All of our products are free from grain, gluten, dairy, nuts & soy."

The brand premise is simple: everything is "fit" for anyone, e.g. free of all the major allergens, gluten-free and vegan, etc, etc.  They make two main product lines: pretzels and crackers.  I've tried only the former.

Pretzels

Pretzels are available a sticks (plain sea salt only) or as little twists (sea salt, tangy dijon mustard, hatch chile lime, cheezy white cheddar, everything bagel).  All are gluten-free and vegan (yes, including the "cheezy" one).

Tangy Dijon Mustard.

"We feel your hunger pangs. But they’re about to come to an end thanks to a brilliant blend of tanginess and dijon mustard flavor baked into every bite of our grain & gluten-free pretzels."

I tried the dijon ones.

These are fascinating pretzels.  They look a bit ... pale and orange, so slightly off putting visually, a sign that they aren't "normal".

They are considerably more crunchy that standard pretzels, in a way that makes you aware they are likely gluten-free or at least non-traditional ... but not in a bad way.  I actually really liked how crunchy they were.  The base flavor was sorta familiar like a malty pretzel, but just a bit different.  I see they use cassava, potato, and chickpea in the base, but I didn't taste any of those distinctly.

The seasoning on them was fairly strong, and very savory.  I didn't necessarily think, "oooh, dijon mustard!" but I tasted garlic and onion and lots of savoriness.  

Overall, I liked these odd crunchy pretzels, and would gladly get them again. 3.5/5.

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JARS by Favio Viviani

Yes, that Fabio.

If you watched Top Chef earlier seasons, then you likely recognize the name Fabio.  Apparently he has a dessert business.  And apparently there is one relatively near to where I live (well, over in Emeryville, but quasi-close to San Francisco?).  They have only 5 locations, which seem fairly random: St. Louis MO, Chicago, IL, Smyrna, GA, Laguna NIguel, CA, and the one near me, in Emeryville.  

"At JARS, we think outside the little box. And refuse to conform to a space filled with cookies, cupcakes and copycats. We’ve forced dessert outside of its comfort zone with an insanely adventurous twist on traditional treats from around the world. And because we know you can’t bottle adventure, we put it in JARS. We are JARS. And we invite the world to experience a new generation of dessert."

They make pudding jars, soft serve jars, and refreshers (beverages).  The puddings and soft serves are parfait style with layers of components, with bold claims about being a new generation of dessert.  Anyway, someone ordered the puddings for a celebration in my office, and they had some extra, so of course I snagged one, as I love basically all desserts, and puddings in particular.

The menu has some great sounding options, like a play on carrot cake with a cream cheese custard, candied pecans, and a buttercream rim (in addition to the carrot cake of course), a peach cobbler with peach compote/vanilla bean custard/pastry cream/pie crust, and of course a classic banana pudding inspired version, plus seasonal specials. 

Assorted Jars. $8.95 each.

I actually thought these were cupcake when I saw them, but once I picked it up I realized it was something else entirely.  The carnage remaining when I got to them was these 3 flavors, which seemed to be:

Red Velvet Cheesecake

"Vanilla Sweet Cream Cheese Custard, Red Velvet Cake, Vanilla Frosting, House-Baked Red Velvet Cookie."

Salted Caramel Brownie

"Crumbled Brownie Pieces, Chocolate Cake, Salted Caramel & Chocolate Custard, Chocolate Cake Rim."

Tres Leches Cake

"Soaked Vanilla Cake, Pastry Cream, Sweet Strawberries, Sugar coated rim."

Since it was late in the day and I don't have caffeine that late, my choice was easy, as two had chocolate in them: the tres leches cake.  The topping had slid off most of these in transit, but they still looked pretty great.

It was ... ok.  Not bad exactly, but slightly underwhelming.  If you had asked me what flavor it was, if I hadn't looked it up, I would have said strawberry shortcake perhaps, as I didn't really get tres leches vibes nor flavors from it at all.  

The cake was simple vanilla cake, fairly moist, not stale, decent enough.  The pastry cream was thick, rich, and had a slightly odd flavor to it that made it hard to eat a lot of in pudding form like this.  I think a little, like how you'd normally have it in most applications of pastry cream where it is just a filling would be fine, but as the base of the pudding it was just a bit much.  The white topping looked great, but it turned out to be that very stable kind of "whipped topping" that isn't actually whipped cream, but also isn't buttercream, and instead is just very sweet somewhat plastic tasting "creme".  I think that element was the most disappointing, as it just felt cheap and really had a plastic taste.  The berries were fresh and ripe.

Overall, it did all come together as an ok dessert - cake, thick pudding, topping, fruit, really a full dessert as I like to have, and the ratios were all good, it just wasn't great, and definitely wasn't tres leches.  Low 3/5. 

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Eileen's Special Cheesecake, NYC

If you ask New Yorker's the best cheesecake, you'll get a variety of answers.  My personal favorite has been Veniero's, the tourists will all flock to Junior's, and there is a loooong tail of other places that people will swear by.  New York is known for cheesecake after all.  But one place that does come up frequently on best cheesecake lists is Eileen's Special Cheesecake.  Food & Wine named it the best cheesecake in America in 2019.

Like many great stories, Eileen's started by a baker, Eileen, who got talked into selling her cheesecake to friend and neighbors, and eventually as a real bakery in 1975. Her daughters now run the business with her, all family run, all women.  

They make, well, cheesecake of course, in 6", 10", or individual tart sizes.  They offer a few other items like chocolate covered strawberries (random!), cannoli, and chocolate mousse too, but, cheesecake is obviously the focus.  Cheesecakes can be topped with different glazed fruits (strawberry, blueberry, cherry, pineapple, raspberry), or come in specialty flavors like salted caramel, chocolate, cookies n' cream, dulce de leche, banana, chocolate raspberry, birthday cake, and more.  They also do make a gluten-free version, a low sugar version, and even a tofu based vegan one. Special flavors like lemon, lemon with raspberry swirl, key lime, mango, coconut, Bailey's, marble, pina colada, red velvet, pumpkin spice, or heart shaped varieties are available with advance order too.

Update Review, Summer 2025

I was visiting my NY office and stumbled into the aftermath of a cheesecake party.  With goodies from Eileen's!  I was overjoyed when I saw all the boxes lined up.

Cheesecake Carnage!

But ... clearly I was late to the party (well, not invited, technically), but I had enjoyed Eileen's cheesecake in the past, and I could see there was clearly plenty left on the trays and knives that was about to get tossed, so I did my part to ensure no cheesecake was left behind!  I managed to salvage quite a bit, as I knew how good Eileen's was from past encounters, and was determined to not let it go to waste.  Of course this meant I got to enjoy some knife and plate licking, both of which bring me child-like glee

I tried all four of the fruity cheesecakes (cherry, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry) but skipped the lemon with raspberry swirl and the cookies n' cream, as neither are really my preference.  All were still beautifully creamy, not too sweet, and had a nice classic cheesecake flavor.  Just classic cheesecake, done right.  I found it interesting that I didn't mind the crust crumble in this carnage form - I always lament that most cheesecake has graham cracker crust and complain about it, but here, when I was sorta eating cheesecake mousse rather than actual formed slices, the crumbled graham crust throughout just gave some great texture. It worked, really.

Cherry.  10". $58.

The cherry turned out to be my favorite.  It had big pieces of juicy cherry on top, in classic cherry pie style goo.  I liked the additional juicy burst from the full cherries.  ****.

Raspberry. 10". $58.

The raspberry was the least memorable, just raspberry preserves on top of cheesecake.  The base was still great, but this isn't one I'd necessarily select myself in the future.  ***+.

Blueberry. 10". $58.

Blueberry was my second favorite, nice to have a berry other than the red berries, as the flavor was a bit more unique.  I think I was also going through a blueberry phase.   ****.

Strawberry. 10". $63.

The strawberry was clearly a crowd favorite, as I didn't get much of the topping besides the goo.  I think this normally has big full berries perched on top.  Hard for me to evaluate, although the cheesecake and goo were tasty of course.

Interestingly, the strawberry full size cheesecake is $5 more than any of the others, likely due to the more generous amount of real fresh fruit?

Grandma Eileen's Chocolate Chip Pound Cake. $24.

"Chocolate chip pound cake loaf. Serves 8."

I'm not really one for pound cake in general, but given how great Eileen's cheesecakes were when I had them before, and the fact that they make very few items other than cheesecake, I thought this must be decent.

It wasn't.  Sorry Grandma Eileen, but I just didn't care for it at all.  The exterior tasted slightly burnt.  It was flecked with chocolate, but they were flecks, not chips, so no real hits of chocolate.  And the base flavor lacked the sugar/butter hit that normally comes with pound cake.  It was just ... kinda generic, kinda dry, not very chocolately cake with a slightly burnt finish.  Meh.  1/5.

Original Review, Summer 2024

I finally got a chance to try it when we had a party at the office with the individual tarts.

Individual Cheesecake Tarts

The individual tarts do not have tart shells, so not really what I think of as tarts, but rather are cheesecakes in little cupcake style wrappers, individual sized.

Strawberry. $6.

"A creamy cheesecake filling topped with a sweet strawberry glaze and a whole strawberry, nestled in a crisp tart crust."

The first I tried was strawberry, which is the traditional cheesecake with strawberry topping.

This was a very good traditional cheesecake.  Dense, NY style, very cream cheese forward, but still fairly fluffy.   No hint of lemon, nor touch of vanilla, just, plain, but the sweetness level was good, and it shined in its simplicity.  The crust was fairly average compressed crumb crust.  The topping was extremely good - it looked like fairly standard strawberry goo from a can, but it was really quite flavorful and the perfect level of sweetness that complimented the plain cheesecake well.

****.

Blueberry. $6.

"A creamy cheesecake filling topped with a generous layer of blueberry compote, nestled in a crisp tart shell."

The blueberry was much the same, same base cheesecake, this time with a thick blueberry compote on top.  Again, it looked kinda generic, but I found the sweetness level really ideal, and the thick nature of the compote worked well with the cheesecake.  ****.

Mango. $6.

"Creamy cheesecake infused with mango atop a buttery tart crust."

Another dense, NY style cheesecake, but still somewhat fluffy.  Strong cream cheese flavor.  Mild mango flavor that was light and tropical.  Standard crumb crust (I think a missed opportunity to do something like a coconut crust that would go so well with the mango).  Quite good, although I do generally go for non-fruity flavors of base cheesecake. ***+.

Chocolate Cappuccino. $6.

"A single-serving cheesecake with a cappuccino-flavored chocolate filling, garnished with a coffee bean."

And finally, a chocolate based one.

This was the most unique of the cheesecakes.  The menu description didn't say it, but it had a chocolate crumb crust rather than standard blond graham crust.  I greatly preferred this compressed chocolate soil style.  The cheesecake itself was much like the others - dense NY style, strong cream cheese flavor, etc, etc.  But this one stood out due to how strong the coffee flavor was.  Really quite a strong intense coffee flavor, which I really enjoyed, but definitely not one for those who are lukewarm on coffee flavors.  ****.

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Friedmans New York

Friedman's is a relatively well known small chain of American comfort food restaurants in New York.  They are notable in that 98% of their menu is gluten-free, and includes things like pancakes, banana bread, and fried chicken that folks rave about, gluten-free or not.  The brand is relatively new, the first location opened only in 2009, and happens to be located right near my office, in Chelsea Market. They have 7 locations in New York, but I actually only experienced them via catering, when a group at work had some of their desserts, and had extra to share.

Fresh Fruit Board. Large (Serves 12). $105.

"With assorted melon and seasonal berries."

The fruit was relatively generic, and I avoided the melons due to allergy, but tried the berries (my allergy to cantaloupe and honeydew isn't so severe that adjacent things will cause me great harm).  The blackberries were large and fresh, but a bit sour, and not particularly good.  The blueberries were good, none mushy.  The strawberries were definitely the best, although they didn't look particularly ripe, they were quite flavorful.  Overall, 3/5.

Mixed Mini Sweets Board. $80.
(Serves 10).

"Chefs assortment of Mini Sweets."

I was of course most interested in the platter of mini desserts.  I tried nearly all of them, skipping only the one that looked like a lemon meringue tart.  I'll admit though, none of these looked particularly good.  Note: some of these do contain gluten.

From left to right:

Fruit crumble tart

Pretty standard generic tart shell, sweet style, a bit soft.  I don't think this is gluten-free.  The filling I think was just strawberry, soft and stewed, with some goo.  It is possible there was rhubarb or some other berry in there as well.  Not too sweet.  A tiny bits of toasted oat crumble on top.  It was "fine" but certainly nothing special nor interesting. 3/5.

Yellow cupcake

I really liked the buttercream on this.  Sweet but not cloying, and I think some lemon notes to it. Nicely fluffy.  The cake though was boring, simple plain style, not particularly moist, not particularly flavorful, tighter crumb structure than I prefer.  3.5/5 buttercream, 2.5/5 cake, 3/5 overall.

Chocolate cupcake

I didn't have this, but I did try the fudge frosting that was left behind.  It was thick, rich, good chocolate flavor. 3.5/5 frosting.

Pecan carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

The cake was ... fine.  Lots of shredded carrot, good crunch from the nuts, light spicing.  Not particularly good nor bad.  The frosting had a good tang to it, tasted indeed like cream cheese, sweet but not too sweet.  I didn't like that they garnished with a raisin.  Basically, fine, but not notable in any way.  3/5.

This is the one item that is also on their regular dessert menu at some locations (as a larger format, four-layer cake).  

Chocolate tart

Fairly generic chocolate tart shell, much like the fruit one I found it a bit soft.  Filling was just a choc fudge-ish, not as tasty as the cupcake frosting. Very low 3/5.

Mini Cheesecake Bites. (GF). $75.

"36 mini pieces of GF Cheesecake Bites."

The other item on their actual dessert menu is cheesecake, always gluten-free.  This was a perfectly acceptable cheesecake.  It was creamy, smooth, tasted of cream cheese, was lightly sweet.  Pretty classic, and pretty good.  The base I'd never know was gluten-free, it was crispy and sweet and not too much like sawdust, better than most cheesecake crusts really.  Strawberry on top was fine.

So, nothing remarkable about this, but it was above average, and by far the best of the desserts.  Low 4/5 perhaps even.

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