In the event you’ve learn this text or column (good day print readers!) lengthy sufficient, then that I write about dessert in an virtually obsessive means. In the event you’re the kind of one that craves one thing candy after dinner or at 3:00 pm within the type of a heat cookie, then you definately’re my sort of individual.
Regardless of how full I’m after a meal, I by no means, ever flip down a proposal to take a look at the dessert menu. (I wish to suppose my abdomen has an historical, rudimentary pocket only for candy treats.) However generally completely nothing on the menu appeals to me—panna cotta, I am speaking about you—and I’ve to go house unhappy.
Or me?
Typically one of the best dessert is some other place
I hold somewhat listing of emergency dessert locations. Just a few summers in the past, I had simply completed eating in Mattress-Stuy and found that the restaurant’s dessert menu was lacking. Earlier within the night time, my dinner companion waxed poetic a few slice of rhubarb and strawberry pie she had eaten at Leland Eating and Drinking House. So we went to Prospect Heights and had a slice of this pie on the bar, no reservation wanted. There is a creme brûlée pie with my identify on the menu proper now, however the Ube Candy Corn Ice Cream additionally caught my eye.
Some might ask why not simply go to eating places with nice pastries? The reality is that the variety of eating places with pastry cooks has been declining for years — it is simpler and cheaper to supply a dessert or two that any chef can put together — and I would fairly not maintain an absence of interesting dessert choices in opposition to an in any other case superb institution.
755 Dean Road (Underhill Avenue)
It is virtually sticky toffee pudding season
As soon as issues calm down round 9 or 10pm, eating places are normally very happy to accommodate a dessert request on the bar. You possibly can cease by Cafe Carmeliniin NoMad, for a tangy candy strawberry yuzu tart or the way more enjoyable jubilee with flambéed cherries for 2. I’ve by no means been disillusioned with the dessert choice at Andrew Carmellini’s eating places.
Once I stopped by this winter, the burnt dessert was boozy sticky toffee pudding, however it’s off the menu for now. At Crown Shynevertheless, sticky toffee pudding is at all times on supply within the monetary district. Within the 5 years because the restaurant has been open, this heat, caramel-sweet pudding topped with chopped pecans and made cool and fruity with just a few scoops of apple sorbet has by no means left the menu—and I hope it by no means does. And it helps that Crown Shy’s bar is lengthy and completely beautiful, and the cocktails are high notch. In different phrases, an ideal place for a nightcap.
Cafe Carmelini250 Fifth Avenue (West twenty eighth Road)
Crown Shy70 Pine Road (Pearl Road)
Melba with Melba, near Hollywood
My newest dessert searching methodology? Go to French. In the event you’ve ever been to Paris, then that even the smallest hole-in-the-wall can have a big selection of desserts. And French eating places right here are likely to comply with swimsuit.
On the Higher West Aspect, seize a seat on the bar at Cafe Luxembourg (there’s additionally ample outside seating for the Covid victims). The employees are used to folks stopping by for a solo meal or just a few drinks, so they will not thoughts anybody craving dessert.
In the event you’re going all-in, order the Harry’s scorching soften with three scoops: it is named after Harry McNally, son of proprietor Lynn Wagenknecht, not the scene in when harry met sally which was taken within the restaurant. (Have you ever heard that eating places had been to the 80s what the theater was to the 60s?) You select the ice cream! Or go easier and order heat cinnamon sugar donut holes, which remind me of when my dad would sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on leftover pie crust, bake them, and serve them to me as a snack. This, like several lovingly ready dessert, introduced a smile to my face.
200 West seventieth Road (Amsterdam Avenue)
Honorable mentions
Listed here are another fast choices for an incredible dessert on the bar (or on the way in which house):
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Claude (90 East tenth Road): I would cease by anytime for the large piece of satan’s meals cake that I affectionately name the bruce bogtrotter cake. Don’t click on this hyperlink if you happen to get nauseous simply.
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of Raf (290 Elizabeth Road): Though a full-fledged, if small, restaurant, Raf’s identifies itself initially as a bakery. That is the one place I might order panna cotta.
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Brown butter cream (375 Tompkins Avenue): I had extra emergency scoops from this Mattress-Stuy ice cream store this summer time than I care to say. Each taste is nice and the ice cream is the creamiest I’ve had this facet of the East River.
