Photography by Haley Hill.
Psychedelic purples and pinks. It’s Willy Wonka and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-inspired. But make it soft-serve, dairy-free and 100% vegan.
Bishop Arts District’s soft-serve spot Swirled Peace is an ode to Sara Saginaw’s childhood.
“I used to watch Willy Wonka as a kid, and I loved the idea of this chocolate wonderland,” she says.
Saginaw and her grandfather would eat dessert out of coffee mugs. That’s why there’s mugs in the shop.
“I love that memory with my grandfather,” she says. “Eating dessert is something everybody likes to do. It’s a family thing, and I wanted to bring that to other people to have that experience.”
In her day job, she works as a full-time Telehealth family medicine physician, so she works at the dessert shop on weekends and evenings. She lives in the district, so it’s a fairly easy commute.
“This is a passion project for me,” Saginaw says.
During the pandemic, she was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder.
“I couldn’t walk. I didn’t think I was going to live. That’s what started my plant-based journey. That was the only thing I could eat,” Saginaw says. “Since being vegan, I’m so much better than I was. I feel like I got a new life, because I really thought I was going to die. I wanted to do the things that I hadn’t done, because I didn’t know how much time I had left. I feel more energetic. I’m an ethical vegan and I would never go back.”
She says that the two worlds of being a doctor and a business owner correlate in terms of improving the health and overall well-being of a person.
“I like to help people and make people happy,” Saginaw says. “And so as a physician, I’m trying to help cure their bodies, their minds, help with whatever heals them, and here at Swirled Peace, I’m also helping people feel happy and included, in a compassionate environment where everyone is welcome and whatever dietary or ethical restrictions people have.”
Since she changed her diet for health reasons, she wanted to find a way to make plant-based desserts more readily available for more sweet tooths.
“I didn’t have a place in the community to go have vegan dessert or hang out with my friends late at night, so I saw a gap in the market, and that is something I wanted to provide to Bishop Arts,” she says.
Most of the time, many customers don’t even realize that they’re eating oat milk-based soft serve.
“When people see a vegan-labeled restaurant, a lot of times they have hesitations about it,” Saginaw says. “I think having a place where more people will just walk in and try it, as opposed to having those hesitations, like ‘Oh, it’s not dairy, I don’t want it.’ They just try it and they don’t even know it’s vegan.”
Flavors like Supersonic Strawberry Balsamic and Pecan Praline are rotated every 10-14 days. The plan is to eventually add seasonal flavors. For the 21+ crowd, THC-infused Delta-8 milkshakes and Delta-9 drinks are available.
The toppings are all plant-based as well, and they include a wide assortment of classic toppings including pecans, Biscoff cookies pieces, marshmallows and caramel. Neitly Vegan Sweets, a bakery based in Cedar Hills, sells pastries in the shop.
“Even as an adult, we get to play out fantasies of whatever dessert we want to make, and I think that is fun,” Saginaw says. “We all have a kid inside, and if you feel happy and childlike, you’re going to stay young.”
Swirled Peace, 309 W Eighth Street, 972.863.8447, swirledpeace.com
