for our 10th anniversary weekend, we definitely indulged and spent two nights at the cooper square hotel (which i highly recommend for anyone wanting to pretend to be an east village hipster) and had a great time hanging out, eating everywhere and just trying to figure out what to do with all our spare time without missing the kiddies too much. on our first night after a very disappointing korean dinner, we ran into our old friend chikalicious dessert bar which i am sure we have not been to since it first opened in 2003, and i think it was the first of what has now become a dessert bar trend with p*ong (now closed), luxee, kyotofu and i’m sure others.
now despite being an international tourist destination, the food and service at chikalicious were really great and i plan to come back again and again. we were lucky in that there was only a minimal wait, and the staff was really just phenomenal — friendly, helpful, knowledgable and efficient in just the right way. after a delicious amuse bouche of brown sugar panna cotta with star anise sorbet, i was then very suprised by how much i loved my non-chocolate dessert of mascarpone parfait in cara cara orange and black tapioca pearls with poppy seed lace crisp. j couldn’t help himself from his banana craze and got the hot chocolate soup with roasted banana ice cream and cacao bean wafer (good but not as good as mine). i had been very tempted to try the warm chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice cream and red wine sauce, one of the chikalicious standards, but was glad to have gotten the extra push to try something a little out of my comfort zone.
the owners have opened a sister bakery across the street serving puddings, cupcakes and soft serve ice cream among other items — we’ll have to check it out. chikalicious dessert bar, 203 east 10th street between 2nd and 1st avenues, manhattan, new york, . chikalicious dessert club, 204 East 10th Street, manhattan, new york, .