Category: Sweets & Treats

If the test of a good French bakery (or French-Belgian in this case) is its croissant, then Colson Patisserie gets an 'A' right off the bat. But besides their truly amazing croissants, they offer a wide variety of equally drool-inducing desserts, including brioche, chocolate mousse cups, and the cutest little bear-shaped financiers, filled with marzipan. Colson's tiny corner shop, which is often staffed by a single, infinitely patient counter person, includes an even tinier seating area. It may be cramped, but it's still a near-ideal place for a Parisian-style Pate sandwich or a peaceful afternoon curled up with a book and a latte.

Pastry chef Emily Isaac, formerly of Union Square Cafe, is the culinary genius behind Trois Pommes Patisserie, which translates to the all-American-sounding Three Apples Bakery. Outstanding cupcakes, brownies, cookies (including homemade Oreos and peanut butter sandwich cookies), ice cream cones, tartlets and other single-serving desserts range from about $2-5, while for a bit more (up to the low $200s for their largest cakes) you can take home one of their full-sized cakes, tarts, pies or cheesecakes. The narrow space boasts beautiful touches like tin ceilings, warm wood counters, exposed brick walls, and of course, the desserts themselves, which make the best kind of window dressing.

For Yuppie brides in the know, there's no better place to pick up a fabulous (and pricey) wedding cake than Sweet Melissa Patisserie. These edible works of art are equally popular with the rich, the famous, and the diverse class of Bridezillas for whom money is no object when it comes to the big day. But Sweet Melissa's cakes and other pastries are only the beginning. A traditional High Tea service is served daily from 11am to 5pm, and if all those Petits Fours, finger sandwiches and scones aren't enough, entrees like Boeuf Bourguignon, Salad Nicoise, and Welsh Rarebit will satisfy any hunger. Children's meals, to stay or boxed to go, offer affordable options for burgeoning foodies and their parents.

When you find yourself in Park Slope, whether you’re with friends or on a date or even on a pleasant day out alone, it’s almost a rule that you have to stop for some coffee. One place I find myself coming to again and again is Ozzie's Coffee and Tea on Fifth Avenue, not necessarily due to its quality or its atmosphere, but simply because of its gargantuan size. Ozzie's Seventh Avenue location, a converted pharmacy, is quieter and preferred by regulars, but the Fifth Avenue one is, as I said, sprawling (by New York standards). Thus, it has more of a community hub feel, with the flyers and community newspapers by the door and the constant stream of incoming young people, plus it offers plenty of tucked-away alcoves for you to hide out in when you just feel like crawling up with a good book. Both locations are known for their relative lack of pretension, and for the fact that you can chill out as long as you want without feeling pressured to leave, unlike bustling mommy-and-stroller havens like Tea Lounge.

Ozzie’s is known equally for its coffee and its tea, and purists insist that plain coffee or loose tea is your best bet for a beverage here. As far as coffees go, Ozzie’s Blend is organic and fair trade, as are most of their other beans, from Sumatra Mandheling to Colombian Supremo. They do their roasting in-house, which means the intoxicating aroma of freshly crushed coffee beans surrounds the store like an aura, enticing you in from the street with promises of rich flavors and sweet caffeine.

I like to come here when I’m out on my own, shopping or whatnot, and need a break. The iced coffee here is strong and perfect for those sweltering summer days, plus the painting of a giant, dripping iced coffee on the front windows of the store incites a near-Pavlovian reaction from me every time. But Ozzie’s fresh fruit smoothies, iced chai, and blended coffee drinks, which are way cheaper than frapps, also hit the spot when the temperature soars.

Now for the downsides. Ozzie’s charges for Wi-Fi, which is kind of dumb when it’s offered in basically all the other area cafés for free. The Fifth Avenue store gets REALLY hot during the summer, to the point where I tip the baristas double out of sheer pity as I watch sweat drip down their faces. Cleanliness falls behind fairly often (think overflowing trash cans), and general maintenance drops when there’s any kind of a rush (the all-important, but much too small, summertime water pitcher goes dry for hours at a time as thirsty patrons gaze at it longingly). All this despite the fact that there are obviously a ton of employees running around looking confused, which points to the larger problem -- that Ozzie’s tends to hire young, inexperienced workers willing to work for a song, but who are oftentimes completely inept. Another major problem is that they only offer paper cups for their beverages, and even use paper plates for their food, which is both environmentally irresponsible and, well, tacky.

All those negatives aside, Ozzie’s has a lot going for it. The coffee is dependably good, the food is decent if not outstanding (try the red velvet cake), and, most importantly, it’s a giant, thriving coffee shop. People-watching here never grows old, and there are usually a lot of cute single people hanging out. Plus, Fridays they host Open Mic night, so you can kick back a few espresso shots and get down with your Seattle side while you listen to grungy amateur acoustic guitarists sing about feelings. There’s something to be said for a place where that kind of atmosphere is still alive and well.

When married entrepreneurs Liat Cohen and Yaniv Reeis opened their tiny storefront in Park Slope, a neighborhood known for overpriced restaurants and stiff competition for fledgling businesses, the odds were against them. The neighborhood was already home to several successful cafés, including Tea Lounge, Ozzie’s, and Gorilla Coffee. And although nowadays you can’t throw a bagel in this town without hitting a gourmet chocolaterie, a few years ago, the concept of a chocolate bar was a tad alien to most people. Cocoa Bar, with its triple focus on chocolate, wine, and coffee, didn’t seem to fit into a category. Was it a bar? A café? A bakery?

In the end, Cohen and Reeis’ gamble paid off, in the form of a lasting business and brand name, which appears on packaged treats and gifts available for sale in the store. Cocoa Bar’s theme keeps the menu necessarily simple, with hot and cold coffee and chocolate beverages joining a respectable wine list, all of which serves to complement the main event: chocolate. Chocolate is celebrated in all its forms here, from gourmet truffles and bonbons (made specially for Cohen and Reeis by a local chocolatier) to a dizzying variety of decadent baked goods (provided by 9 local bakeries, at last count).

I took one of my girlfriends along on my trip to Cocoa Bar, and the first thing we noticed was the diminutive size of the place. The narrow nature of the brownstone location necessitates two seating areas at either end of the long counter. The back area features comfy couches and a bookshelf full of dog-eared volumes, but as we showed up during the pre-dinner hours, the laptop crowd had already laid dominion over the couches. This is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to cafés. You want to talk and laugh and have a good time, but there’s always some egghead glaring at you over his horn-rimmed glasses as he tries in vain to finish his thesis.

We took a seat by the window and dug into our desserts. The Red Velvet Cake was impossibly moist and cinnamony, and went perfectly with the house Merlot I washed it down with. My friend opted for a mini Chocolate Raspberry Torte, which was rich and satisfying, and paired with the house blend of French Roast coffee, made for a perfect afternoon bite. The owners warn on their website that their offerings release endorphins that make you giddy, and I don’t know if it was the chocolate or the Merlot, but I certainly felt a little lighter coming out of Cocoa Bar than I did coming in.

P.S. Chocoholics who don’t want to make the journey out to Park Slope can get their fix at Cocoa Bar’s new Manhattan location at 21 Clinton Street in the Lower East Side.