Palmer Eatery Restructures While Preparing for Future Expansion

Although Fox enjoyed cooking, she’d never worked in a restaurant kitchen before. Her closest work experience was at her first-ever job as a teen, on the counter at Taco Bell. She was a faithful Food Network watcher and learned as much as she could about the restaurant industry by watching cooking channel icons. Similarly, she’s a vegetarian who doesn’t like the texture of meat, but for years she has cooked for a family of meat-eaters. She’s used to adapting and learning on the fly.

“I was just like, ‘I want to cook for people, and I’m going to do it.’ That was my vision and, boom, it took off from there,” she says.

The restaurant opened January 19, 2024, and was well received. Fox offered creative salads, savory soups, a gluten-free Belgian waffle bar plate that came with an array of savory and sweet topping options for the thick waffle wedges, and fun appetizers such as macaroni and cheese egg rolls.

After several months of operation, the other half of the building became available, and the landlord asked if the Foxes wanted to expand. Doing so would more than double the seating capacity, so they agreed, completing renovations on days off.

“I was so glad when it opened; it was such a neat vibe,” Fox says—sort of a rustic, vintage bohemian chic aesthetic, with bright colors and soft fabrics.

Shifting Focus

After the renovations were done, the building owner proceeded with external upgrades—new siding and parking lot improvements—and in October, Fox received notice that the rent was going to increase significantly. Unfortunately, she says, the increase was more than the restaurant could afford. Fox posted to the Sweet Gypsy page on Facebook about how torn she was over the decision to move out.

“After being open for about four months or so, cars will pull up even before the [restaurant] doors are unlocked and have continued to do so since,” Fox wrote on October 7, 2025. “Yesterday every table was full within 45 minutes of opening, people anxious to get a slice of cheesecake, meet a friend, get their favorite salad or come try us for the first time. It was a full house, filled with laughter, the clatter of forks and spoons, business meetings and friends catching up. This is how I pictured it, how I wanted my restaurant to be, this is what it was all about for me. It always makes me so happy to see people enjoying themselves and the food in a place that I created.”

She continues, “It used to worry me that I would not find another career that would make me feel like I did when I was an RN [registered nurse], like I was making a difference in someone’s life. Having this restaurant, a few months shy of two years, has most definitely made me feel like I have made a difference.”

But it wasn’t the end for Sweet Gypsy, just a new chapter. The restaurant has a significant following on Facebook—its page has more than 5,000 followers, comparable to Palmer institutions such as Vagabond Blues and Turkey Red in the 4,500 range. Fox’s photography skills are well used, showcasing her inventive cheesecakes and other menu items.

Using both to her advantage, Fox announced a new location in the Colony Plaza at the end of October, and the business took orders for Thanksgiving desserts and sides. While she and her husband worked to get the new space—essentially four walls and a bathroom—into shape as a restaurant through November and December, she set up a system for holiday orders as well, offering what she could under the state’s newly expanded laws regarding the sale of homemade food, which allows refrigerated foods, such as cheesecakes or meats, to be sold. That meant Fox could prepare cheesecakes, lasagna, and more in her home kitchen and sell it from a refrigerated case at the new location until the commercial kitchen could be brought online.

A New Hope

After the new year, the restaurant was running as a take-out operation. With the turn of the season to spring, Fox says she received permission from the city to offer sit-down dining. There are still limitations: she’s not deep-frying foods, for example, so mac-and-cheese egg rolls are on hold for now. But at least some of Fox’s vision—meetups between friends, forks clattering on plates, satisfied smiles when a customer takes a bite of dessert and revels in the taste—are being realized again.

In the meantime, Fox and her husband are working on completing her longer-term vision: the standalone restaurant with a view so grand, she confides, it prompted George Lucas (yes, the famed Star Wars filmmaker) to offer her mother-in-law $1 million to purchase the property while he was here in the ‘80s to scout filming locations. The offer? Declined.