Their bacon is not from pigs, BBQ is made from fruit – and you’ll love it nonetheless

Veganism is tough. No animal products of any kind means no eggs, no milk, no butter, no bacon(!), nothing that comes from an animal. Trying to feed people in the South without those things is pretty tricky.

Gourmet Goodie Box makes it look easy. From their delicious “buttered” bread to an inventive way to make pulled pork barbecue, many of their fans say veganism isn’t required to love this food.

Everything they make here is from scratch. Even though they have a traveling food truck, we visited their kitchen location at the Macon Farmers Market. The display case was full of doughnuts, cupcakes and cinnamon rolls and the joint was jumping on a Sunday afternoon.

Since it was brunch, we ordered mostly breakfast items. My favorites were the carbohydrates: the bread, the doughnuts, the waffles, cinnamon rolls and French toast were all quite tasty. Less of a hit for me were the animal protein-like foods, such as the tofu scrambled eggs and vegan gravy. My dining partner, however, enjoyed the bacon made from toasted coconut. The avocado toast was beautiful but would be more my taste without so much chili powder. Other brunch options include The Villager hummus and veggie sandwich with ranch dressing, “chickn” biscuits and a large fruit bowl with granola and sliced almonds.

We came back for dinner that same week and got the grilled “cheeze,” barbecue sandwich, a beef ‘n’ cheddar, and buffalo chickn nuggets. The grilled cheese was spot on — I wouldn’t have known it wasn’t full of animals. The pulled “barbecue” was a clever concoction of seasoned jackfruit(!). The beef and cheddar needed more of both but the chickn nuggets were pretty interesting

On Sept. 30, they’ll host Taco Mania with live music, comedians, vendors and more from 2-6 p.m. They also have a very popular food truck that travels between the Mulberry Market at Tattnall Square Park on Wednesdays and the Thursday farmers market in Warner Robins. If you’ve always wanted to see what life would be like without eating animals or their products, Gourmet Goodie Box is a great place to start.

Gourmet Goodie Box

Address: 2055 Eisenhower Pkwy., Macon

Phone: 478-254-0816

Hours: 9 a.m.-noon Sunday, noon-6 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, noon-4 p.m. Friday

Payment: credit card, cash

Smoking: no

Alcohol: no

Kids menu: no

Noise level: low

Website: Facebook

Delivery service: no

Price range: $5.99-$14.99

Rating: 3 stars

This story was originally published September 19, 2018 at 5:25 PM.