Valentine’s at Bespoke Chocolates

Valentine’s is often for the lucky… the lucky in love.

So tempt the hands of time, seduce your true love and express your creativity and deepest, most burning emotions at Bespoke Chocolates.

Rachel and Gil are creating a limited number of hand-molded heart-shaped dark chocolate boxes (advanced orders, a must!), to be filled with ten of their most amazing artisanal bonbons (think: French milk chocolate, strawberry balsamic, passionfruit…) and your personalized message, written in on a red card in gold ink (love, desire, passion, sex, marriage??).

The boutique’s open extended hours this weekend so even if you haven’t been slayed by Cupid’s arrow, you can pick up some pretzel-covered sea-salted caramels or other divine hand-crafted chocolates.

Photo by Saleena Fortunato

New York’s best sweets by neighborhood

When you analyze the sweet life in a city like New York, you have to think holistically. There are so many ridiculously delicious spots, it’s just not a matter of picking what is the best in any given neighborhood. You have to consider the whole landscape: the balance of cookies to chocolates to cupcakes. You might have four favorite cupcake cafes, but that doesn’t mean they’re better than your favorite chocolatier. Balance, my friends, balance.

It’s with this very serious and incredibly scientific approach that I have developed the following list—New York’s best sweets by neighborhood.

East Village
My love for Momofuku cookies is no secret. But given the number of cookies on my list, the best sweet in the East Village goes to Bespoke Chocolates’ insanely fresh, rich and inventive chocolate bonbons.

West Village
I’m getting a lot of important croissant-sampling experience over here in Paris. It only reaffirms my belief in Patisserie Claude having the best croissant in the city.

Lower East Side
I’m going with the Ooey Gooey cupcake from Sugar Sweet Sunshine over Doughnut Plant. Doughnuts don’t have frosting.

Soho
Kee’s. Though whether for the heady homemade chocolates or the wonderfully flavorful macaroons, I’m not sure.

Flatiron
Peanut butter cookie at City Bakery. It’s that easy.

Chelsea
When I met Sandra Palmer and Kiyomi Toda-BurkeI from Three Tarts, I became a convert. This was reinforced with every subsequent visit for a mini parfait or bite-sized bread pudding.

Midtown
I’m really not a phyllo dough girl. I generally like my sweets made with lots of flour, sugar and dairy and topped with more sugar and/or chocolate (how do I not have diabetes??). But Poseidon Bakery’s baklava is so heavy and sweet with honey and nuts, it’s a must-have.

Upper East Side
I’m going with the mille crepes cake at Lady M, based on texture alone. Otherworldly.

Upper West Side
Eight ounces of cookie heaven: the walnut chocolate chip cookie from Levain.

A plus tard, New York

New York, it’s been sweet. You will always own my heart. But Paris has my soul, and I’m going over to live there for awhile.


I’m going to miss my very best favorites—Batch, Bespoke, Kee’s, Momofuku—and I will be late to some new discoveries. But I will be back, with skat, and hungry to explore.

Sweet Freak Smackdown: East vs. West

The Willage has always been my go-to neighborhood for sweets. But, like a dark horse, the East Village has come from nowhere with chocolate, cookies and cupcakes of heroic portions and flavors.

So, which side of town is the best sweets destination? A Sweet Freak Smackdown:

The dessert bar & spin-off:
p*ong and Batch v. ChikaLicious and ChikaLicious Dessert Club

I've always been a sucker for Pichet Ong's sweet-savory combinations. It started at p•ong with a three-course dessert-as-dinner feast: a walnut-crusted Stilton cheese soufflé with basil-arugula ice cream, a chevre cheesecake croquette and a malted chocolate Bavarian tart served with crunchy caramelized bananas. And my love for his cupcakes—carrot salted caramel, chocolate dragon devil's food cake and others—is no secret. I have an affliction.

But at the original dessert bar, ChikaLicious, Chika and Don Tillman are hardly slouches. Their three-course prix fixe menu starts with an amuse, ends with petit fours, and includes your choice of a gorgeous dessert like brown sugar panna cotta served with grape sorbet, warm chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice cream and red wine sauce, or fromage blanc island cheese cake served atop a mound of shaved ice. And, knowing that Sweet Freaks sometimes like a treat on the run, their Dessert Club offers heavenly cupcakes, bread puddings and chocolate chip cookies.

Verdict: West Village
At the end of the day, my heart belongs to Pichet.


Cupcake central:
Magnolia v. Butter Lane

We can thank Magnolia (sincerely or facetiously) for taking us on this national cupcake binge. When I first moved to Manhattan, there were no annoying lines at the West Village bakery (just cranky employees) and I quickly became a fan of the ultra sweet pastel cupcakes. Then I got a little sugared out.

Thank goodness new cupcake stations, like the East Village's Butter Lane, have toned down the sweetness and introduced super fine ingredients like French buttercream, farm fresh eggs and pure vanilla. This three-month-old cupcake-only bakery does the neighborhood proud.

Verdict: East Village
Butter Lane kicks butt.


Cookie monsters:
Milk & Cookie v. Momofuku

I really think cookies are my all-time favorite sweet. Classic chocolate chip is hard to beat, but I'm always hungry for experimentation.

I love that Milk & Cookies lets you create your own flavors with killer ingredients like hazelnuts from Bazzini and E.Guittard chocolate, not to mention cappuccino chips, M&Ms and cranberries. Their variety is impressive; quality, top-notch; and the place is just cute.

But, um, Momofuku? Best. Cookies. Ever.

Verdict: East Village
Momofuku's blueberry cream and cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookies seal the deal.


For the chocoholic:
Pure Dark & Li-Lac v. Bespoke & Bond Street

Both Villages have seen a lot of chocolate action lately. Alison Nelson's Chocolate Bar spent seven years on Eighth Avenue before high rents last year sent her across town to East Seventh Street. But the East wasn't as kind and just six months later, she closed. Sad, but… she's going to reopen right across the street from her original shop in the West Village.

In the meantime, Pure Dark opened on Bleecker (house specialty: create your own bark with mix-ins like cacao nibs, mango and macadamia nuts), joining Willage staple Li-Lac.

On the eastern side of town, Bond Street Chocolate, home of the gold-dusted deities and tequila truffles, opened on Fourth Street, followed by Bespoke, where you can get the most divine melt-in-your-mouth truffles.

Verdict: East Village
Between Bespoke's strawberry balsamic truffle and Bond Street's chocolate-covered corn nuts, I have my sweet, salty and sour chocolate needs met.

Overall verdict:
East beats West!

Behold, Bespoke is open

Rachel and Gil are ready! The city was kind enough to finally hand over those permits so us chocoholics can get our fix at the lovely new Bespoke Chocolates. All I have to say is: get ready, people.

These truffles are some of the best I have ever eaten (though Mr. B's birthday bonbons were pretty crazy, and I still put Kee's on a pedestal, and then there was Paris…). But. But, but, but.

The strawberry balsamic truffle is made with strawberry puree, eight-year-old La Vecchia Dispensa Italian balsamic vinegar and 66% dark chocolate. Then it's dusted with freeze-dried strawberry powder. Heaven.

A simple 70% Columbian dark chocolate truffle (pictured here) is impossibly creamy — a real melt-in-your-mouth gem.

And Rachel's signature pretzel-covered sea salted caramel is crazy, with crackly, salty pretzel bits coating the chocolate shell and caramel center. Insler suggests popping the whole thing in your mouth since “it’s really liquidy caramel inside.”

As amazing as these truffles are, I can't wait until they unveil their homemade hazelnut spread (better than Nutella?!) and chocolate bars.

6 Extra Place off First Street, between Bowery and 2nd Ave
212.260.7103