Just Desserts
Life is short--eat dessert first" turns out to be a sound business plan. Eateries are springing up where you can have dessert first . . . second, and third. Boston's Finale, which opened in 1998, appears to have kicked off the trend. "We're trying to educate customers about the difference between a $5 slab of cake and a $10 premium dessert," says cofounder Paul Conforti. Finale now has a second spot, near Harvard, and hopes to add more. Barcelona's Espai Sucre (Sugar Space) serves exotic sweets: Care for a "salad" of spicy milk-pudding cubes, apple sticks, arugula, and caramel? Then there's the $1,000 brownie at Brûlee, which opened in February at Atlantic City's Tropicana Hotel and Casino. The dessert is dusted with edible gold powder and served with a rare, 1996 Quinta do Noval Nacional port in a crystal atomizer. Take a bite, open wide, and the dessert captain squirts a mist of port on your tongue. The $750 atomizer is yours to keep. So far, three have been sold. It doesn't get much sweeter than that.
WHAT & WHERE
Finale
Boston and Cambridge
finaledesserts.com
AMBIENCE
Candlelit tables, dark-red velvet banquettes, chocolate-colored chairs.
TO DIE FOR
Molten chocolate cake, served with chocolate-covered almonds, choco sauce
WHAT & WHERE
Brûlee, the Dessert Experience,
Atlantic City
bruleedesserts.com
AMBIENCE
Watch chef Jemal Edwards in person or on plasma screens overhead.
TO DIE FOR
Razzzburger: rose-water macaroon, white chocolate ganache, raspberries
WHAT & WHERE
ChikaLicious
New York
chikalicious.com
AMBIENCE
Small and intimate; you can chat with the chef as you ooh and aah over your order.
TO DIE FOR
Fromage Blanc Island "Cheese Cake": light, fluffy, creamy, crustless
WHAT & WHERE
Sugar
Chicago
(312) 822-9999
AMBIENCE
A glitzy nightclub with funky decor, punny desserts (like the Tell-Tale Tart).
TO DIE FOR
MacDeath by Chocolate: cake, pot de cr e me, sorbet, and a chocolate dagger
This story appears in the June 6, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.