If you’ve read this newsletter or column (hello print readers!) long enough then you know that I write about dessert in an almost obsessive way. If you’re the type of person who craves something sweet after dinner or a 3 p.m. pickup in the form of a warm cookie, then you’re my type of person.
No matter how full I am after a meal, I never, ever turn down an offer to check out the dessert menu. (I like to think that my stomach has an ancient, vestigial pocket just for sweet treats.) But sometimes absolutely nothing on the menu appeals to me — panna cotta, I’m talking about you — and I have to go home unfulfilled.
Or do I?
Sometimes the best dessert is somewhere else
I keep in my mental possession a small list of emergency dessert destinations. A few summers ago, I had just finished up dinner in Bed-Stuy and found the restaurant’s dessert menu lacking. Earlier in the night, my dining companion waxed poetic about a slice of rhubarb and strawberry pie she’d had at Leland Eating and Drinking House. So, we walked to Prospect Heights and had a slice of that pie at the bar, no reservation needed. Currently, there’s a crème brûlée pie on the menu with my name on it though the sweet corn ube ice cream has also caught my eye.
Some might ask, why don’t you just go to restaurants with great pastry programs? The truth is that the number of restaurants with pastry chefs has been dwindling for years — it’s easier and cheaper to offer one or two desserts that any chef can make — and I’d rather not hold a lack of appealing dessert options against an otherwise fine establishment.
It’s almost sticky toffee pudding season
Once things have quieted down around 9 or 10 p.m., restaurants are usually more than happy to accommodate a request for dessert at the bar. You could stop by Café Carmellini, in NoMad, for a tangy sweet strawberry and yuzu tart or the far more entertaining flambéed cherries jubilee for two. I have never been disappointed by the dessert selection at Andrew Carmellini’s restaurants.
When I stopped by this winter, the set-on-fire dessert was a boozy sticky toffee pudding, but it’s off the menu for now. At Crown Shy, in the financial district, sticky toffee pudding is always available, though. In the five years since the restaurant’s been open, that warm, caramel-sweet pudding, topped with chopped pecans and made cool and fruity with a few scoops of apple sorbet, has never left the menu — and I hope it never does. And it helps that Crown Shy’s bar is long and absolutely gorgeous, and the cocktails are on point. In other words, a perfect place for a nightcap.
A Hollywood-adjacent hot fudge sundae
My final methodology for dessert hunting? Go French. If you’ve ever been to Paris then you know that even the smallest hole-in-the-wall will have an extensive selection of desserts. And French restaurants here usually follow suit.
On the Upper West Side, grab a seat at the bar at Café Luxembourg (there’s also ample outdoor seating for the Covid-conscious). The staff is accustomed to people dropping by for a solo meal or a few drinks, so they won’t mind anyone craving dessert.
If you’re going all in, order the three-scoop Harry’s hot fudge sundae: It’s named for Harry McNally, the son of the owner, Lynn Wagenknecht, and not for the scene in “When Harry Met Sally” that was filmed in the restaurant. (Have you heard that restaurants were to people in the ’80s what theater was to people in the ’60s?) You get to pick the ice cream! Or go simple and order the warm cinnamon and sugar-dusted doughnut holes, which remind me of when my dad used to sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on left over pie crust, bake it, and serve it to me as a snack. That, like every lovingly prepared dessert since, put a smile on my face.
Honorable Mentions
Here are a few other quick options for a lovely dessert at the bar (or on the walk home):
Claud (90 East 10th Street): I’d stop by anytime for the giant slice of devil’s food cake, which I affectionately refer to as the Bruce Bogtrotter cake. Don’t click that link if you get queasy easily.
Raf’s (290 Elizabeth Street): Despite being a full-blown, albeit tiny, restaurant, Raf’s identifies first and foremost as a bakery. It’s the one place where I might consider ordering the panna cotta.
Brown Butter Creamery (375 Tompkins Avenue): I’ve had more emergency scoops from this Bed-Stuy ice cream shop this summer than I care to mention. Every flavor is great, and the ice cream is the creamiest I’ve had this side of the East River.
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