Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream

One month ago, I read about Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream and got really excited. Now, there are a lot of marvelous places in this city to get ice cream. Ample Hills, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, Blue Marble--and that's without even having to think about it. So why, you wonder, would I get so excited about this new ice cream venue?

Because Morgenstern's menu listed the following:

CHOCOLATE DELUXE
Chocolate every way.
Chocolate frozen.
Chocolate whipped.
Chocolate crunch.
Chocolate baked.
It's over.

This so-called Chocolate Deluxe is priced at $15, but I will pay big bucks in order to keep you informed about important chocolate news. Plus, that's some really good menu copy.

So I gathered together a number of friends. And last night we went to Morgenstern's, to try this Chocolate Deluxe and see if it was, as promised, "over." And here's what happened:

They didn't have it.

The woman who worked there assured me that it wasn't that they had run out for the day. It's that the Chocolate Deluxe actually does not exist. The chef is still in the process of creating it. At some point presumably it will exist, since it is promised on the menu. But she could not tell me when.

Folks, go to Brooklyn Farmacy, go to Emack and Bolio, go to Sundaes and Cones. There is so much good ice cream in New York City. Don't waste your time on a place that promises chocolate they cannot deliver.

BOTTOM LINE: You're right, Morgenstern's: It's over.

Russ and Daughters Cafe

Our beloved Russ and Daughters has recently opened a cafe, so naturally I went to check it out and order all the chocolatey things on the menu.

The cafe is really lovely, all clean and white decor, delicious bagels and challah. It feels very soothing. It is also super-crowded, probably because it is still so new. I managed to secure a table by showing up for brunch around 3:45 in the afternoon. Feel free to employ this technique.

Elyse got an egg cream:



Classic U-Bet syrup, milk, soda. I tasted a sip and it was chocolatey. I can't say any more than that because I don't like fizzy beverages. It cost $7.

We also split a chocolate babka french toast:



UM, what can I say about this. It was freaking delicious. I used the word "perfect" while I was eating it. It's the perfect crispy-soft texture. No gross eggy bits. Just warm, moist, somehow slightly crispy on the outside, very chocolatey bread product. Emily theorized that maybe they didn't fully bake the babka, and that's how it stayed so moist when they french toasted it. It's a good theory. All I can say for sure is that I loved it.

Unfortunately, it costs $10. Before tax and tip. And then there's that previously mentioned long wait for a table, most of the time. After brunch someone asked me if it had been "worth it," and I found this a hard question to answer. It was expensive, for a small piece of chocolate french toast. But can you really put a price on perfection?

BOTTOM LINE: Definitely go to Russ & Daughters Cafe. Ideally, go on someone else's dime.

SOY's Chocolate Tofu Pudding

SOY is a wonderful little restaurant on the Lower East Side.  It serves delicious Japanese home cooking, with a nice emphasis on tofu dishes -- though plenty of other options are available.

Unfortunately, the chocolate tofu pudding was not quite up to par.  Probably because the emphasis was on the tofu and not the chocolate.  I definitely recommend the restaurant, but look elsewhere for dessert.

Bottom Line: Just not chocolatey enough.

Maggie's Kitchen

It's hard to say exactly what this is.  It looks like chocolate, caramel, and cookie.  It tastes mostly like butter.  Either way, you win.

It's made in the basement of some store on the Lower East Side.  In any case, this is a pretty delicious gutbomb.

Bottom Line: Perhaps the best chocolate dessert on East Broadway?

Russ and Daughters

Russ & Daughters is a famous Lower East Side provider of bagels, cream cheese, smoked (and non-smoked) fish, and other such delicious brunch essentials.  Unbeknownst to most, it also sells chocolate.

It sells bon bons:

It doesn't take them that seriously.  They don't make them themselves, and the people who worked their did not know where they got them.  But they were totally serviceable.  They sell chocolate covered pretzels:

... which are honestly pretty hard to mess up.  But the star is this:

Chocolate bagel bread pudding.  Like regular bread pudding, but with bagels instead of bread.  And chocolate chips.

At first bite, you'll be like, "This isn't chocolatey enough.  But I better have another bite."  At second bite you'll be like, "This still isn't chocolatey enough, but I'll have another couple bites."  And pretty soon you are just shoveling it into your mouth like you have not seen food in six weeks.

Bottom Line: This isn't chocolatey enough, but I'll take a dozen.

Clinton Street Baking Company: the Brookie

You may recall that we have visited Clinton Street Baking Company previously, last time for Pancake Month. But even when it's not February, there are very good reasons to go there.



One very good reason is this: the Brookie. I saw it and said the the store clerk, "It's a mix between a brownie and a cookie, right?" She said, "You are the only person to have figured that out just by looking at the name!" Privately, I thought: everyone else is not paying enough attention.



The Brookie is that all-brown one in the middle. See it?

The Brookie is everything you would want from a brownie-cookie hybrid. It's extremely moist, like brownie dough that has been cooked just barely long enough. Moist to the point where it practically falls apart in your hand. It has melty chocolate chips in it, like a chocolate chip cookie fresh out of the oven. It costs $2.50, which is completely within my chocolate budget and actually sounds like something I could/should afford every day.

BOTTOM LINE: Better than a brownie. Better than a cookie. It's a Brookie.

Creperie

Dark chocolate crepe with chocolate fudge and chocolate brownies, covered in chocolate sauce.

From the outside:

The only downside is they didn't have chocolate ice cream.

From the everythingside:

There may be a more chocolatey crepe somewhere in NYC, but if there is, I don't know about it.

Bottom Line: My favorite crepe.

Rainbow Cookies from Bagel Boss and Sugar

When I was a child, my grandmother would travel all the way up to Washington Heights to purchase rainbow cookies for me.  They were my favorite parve dessert, and since she was orthodox, most meals at her house were followed by parve desserts.   They were not really chocolate, but they were covered in chocolate, so I'm going to count it.  They also were not really cookies, but whatever.  Or rainbows, I guess.  Just leave me alone, ok?

Rainbow cookies are a real art. Jewish bakeries know how to make them right -- with almond flour or marzipan.   If you get them at an Italian bakery, it is often just regular wheat flour.  Ironic, as they are an Italian invention and designed from the Italian flag (or so I hear).

Tragically, the bakery of my childhood has since closed, and I have ever since been on the hunt to find rainbow cookies as good.  The best I know of right now are at Bagel Boss.  They also make my favorite bagels in the city.  But the rainbow cookies are just the right combo of chocolate and almond to bring me back to my childhood.

Recently, I stopped by Sugar and tried their version. Among the circles I travel, those circles namely being Leila, Sugar is not the most highly respected bakery, so I was expecting very little.

I was quite surprised to find their rainbow cookies more than adequate, and indeed made with almond flour. A lucky stop!

Bottom Line: How about you, readers? Do you have any advice for me to regain the tatters of my lost childhood? No pressure.

Clinton Street Baking Company Pancake Month

This is not a useful thing for you to know right now, but it will become a useful thing for you know in roughly eleven months: February is Pancake Month at Clinton Street Baking Company. Every day they offer a different, amazing pancake, including a few with chocolate. For example, this year they offered one option that was German chocolate pancakes with roasted organic pecans, caramel, fresh coconut, and bittersweet chocolate sauce. And they offered this one on the day that my friends and I went:



"What is that monster?!" you are wondering. Promotional copy from the Clinton Street Baking Co.'s website tells us it's "crunchy bananas with cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce." I would add that it's phenomenal. The chocolate sauce was so high-quality (and not spicy-- don't let that "chili" put you off), and the fried bananas were a work of art. Fried bananas plus high-quality chocolate sauce plus some of NYC's best pancakes equals one of my favorite meals of the year. Because, did I mention? It's pancakes. Not just chocolate. Therefore this is dinner. Not just dessert. Yes.

BOTTOM LINE: Time to start counting down the days until Pancake Month 2014...

Cafe Grumpy

David and I both read a lot of articles about chocolate in NYC. In many of these articles, authors list their "top tens" of things. (By the way, we are not above this practice, which is why we just posted our Best Chocolate of 2012 list.) One time I read an article about the "top ten" hot chocolates in NYC, and Cafe Grumpy made the list.

Obviously, this meant I had to check it out. And here is my review: it was okay.

Cafe Grumpy's hot chocolate is hot. It is chocolate. It is creamy. It looks pretty. It is enjoyable on a cold day. It is not one of the "top ten" best hot chocolates in the city.

That's okay. We can't all be Fresco.

The weird thing is, even though I have established how I feel about Cafe Grumpy's hot chocolate (answer: fine), I keep going back there, just because I know it is on somebody else's "top ten list." I keep waiting to have that "top ten" experience, even though clearly my tastes differ from those of that author.

BOTTOM LINE: Journalism is a powerful force. And this hot chocolate is: fine.

Chocolate Bomb at Sugar Sweet Sunshine

Many people know of Sugar Sweet Sunshine as a cupcakery.  It has cupcakes, made with almond meal/flour/something.  I am assured by cupcake lovers that they are exceptional cupcakes.  But a chocolate lover gets distracted by the almond and craves something more chocolatey.  Don't worry; they've got you covered.  Just walk around the corner of the counter.

This disaster is one of my favorite chocolate desserts in the city, and certainly a must-go on the Lower East Side:

That's chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, and chocolate whipped cream, mashed together, scooped into a cup, and eaten as pudding with a spoon.

Bottom Line:  I gained 10 pounds just typing up this review, and all I wanted was the opportunity to gain 20 more with another cup of this stuff.