New bakery slices into Winter Park dessert market

Orlando Avenue just became a whole lot sweeter.

The Glass Knife dessert shop opened Nov. 10 in Winter Park. The café, at 276 S. Orlando Ave., offers an assortment of cakes, pastries, artisan doughnuts and other meals.

 
Although the cafe has been in development for nearly a year, owner Steven Brown has been working on the project for much longer. 

“I’ve had this idea in my head for probably two decades,” Brown said. 

Brown, 49, didn’t start up the dessert shop to make ends meet. He’s still the CEO for Accesso, a London-based ticket technology company with an office in Lake Mary. Rather, the Glass Knife is a passion project that has origins in Brown’s childhood.

It all started with his mother Jacque, a hobbyist baker who made cakes and treats from the comfort of their Lakeland home.  

“From the time I could remember, she made wedding and birthday cakes from our home kitchen,” Brown said. 

Those same family recipes are being used for customers today; the Glass Knife’s red velvet cake, carrot cake and even the refrigerated pickles are all made with the Brown clan’s original designs.

Growing up, Brown often felt dessert shops and bakeries would make food that was either delicious or aesthetically pleasing — but rarely both. The Winter Park resident wanted his cafe to change that. 

“You see a lot of beautiful desserts, but they don’t always taste great,” Brown said. “We wanted to make something rewarding to both the eye and the tongue.”

The café’s name, too, is credited to Jacque. 

“She was a collector of these pieces of depression-era glass knives — royalty glass from the twenties and thirties,” Brown said.

Before stainless steel, cutting something acidic or soft with a metal knife would leave a bitter, metallic taste, Brown said. Glass knives were a way to avoid that acrid sensation and were considered good gifts for housewives.

“The marketing was, ‘Every wife should have a glass knife,’” Brown said. 

He’s kept ahold of his mother’s collection and has it on display in the restaurant. He even had the chance to meet the granddaughter of John Didio, the inventor of the glass knife, a few months ago. She loaned Brown one of her grandfather’s printing plates, which now rests in the cafe for customers to see. 

Brown said he has been pleased with the reception his new venture has received. He only wishes his mother was around to see it. 

Jacque died last year, just after her son had chosen the Orlando Avenue location to build the cafe.

“I think my mom would have been so pleased … to see the concept and the heritage carried over,” Brown said. “We (the staff) are just so proud to be working on something that has meaning.”