Cooking has been a lifelong passion for Khanisa Darby. “I’ve always had a love for the culinary arts,” she says. “I began cooking at 11 years old, and in high school I attended Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School where I received formal training in the culinary arts.” But the road to owning her own business in Downtown Easton was not a straight one.
“In 2016, my husband, Sean, and I were already settled into our respective careers, but feeling unfulfilled,” she says. “In June of that year, my sister requested I make banana pudding for her barbecue, and once it was tasted, it was an instant hit. I posted a photo of the pudding nicely layered in a pretty trifle bowl and received close to 100 comments requesting an order!”
From there, the journey to launching The Pudding Bar began. “We opened our first mall cart in September 2016 in the Lehigh Valley Mall, and opened three more in New Jersey by 2018,” she explains. “With a growing customer base and an even better idea of the experience we’d like to give our customers, we were finally able to open our flagship location in Downtown Easton in August of 2019.”
The Pudding Bar offers customers a variety of delicious pudding treats, ranging from the Southern Classic, which layers vanilla pudding with yummy wafer cookies, to Lovers Lane, where banana meets strawberry for a perfect combination.