Cheap Eats - Sweetening Midtown

Chocolate Pink Pastry Cafe

Chocolate Pink Pastry Café may be the realization of girl fantasies the world over. All it needs is a handsome prince by the front door handing out tiaras. Nestled into a cozy corner space in the chic new 905 Juniper building in Midtown, Chocolate Pink channels Breakfast at Tiffany’s with its glossy walnut-stained café tables and mod light fixtures. It’s not hard to picture Holly Golightly holding court on a pink upholstered banquette, croissant in hand. The pastry case is filled with the heart’s desire of every stylish girl I know: irresistible sweets.

Pink Perfection: Executive pastry chef Christian Balbierer keeps the case stocked with a gorgeous assortment of cakes, tarts, petits fours and handmade chocolates. Croissants, cookies and brownies are baked fresh daily, too. Balbierer honed his skills at Buckhead Life Restaurant Group’s Bluepointe before venturing out on his own. It only takes a cursory glance in that gleaming case to see that Balbierer has crafted something special here.

Let Them Eat Cake: The dessert selections rotate depending on what’s fresh, but a few signature items are always on hand. The Petunia is particularly luscious, with its base of chocolate buttermilk cake topped with caramelized bananas, hazelnut mousse and Nutella ganache. Any fan of chocolate and bananas will find it irresistible. Even naughtier is the chocolate toffee cake, a flourless chocolate cake on an Oreo crust, topped with a swirl of caramel and toffee crumbles. But nothing beats the simple elegance of a fresh fruit tart, its glistening raspberries and juicy slices of plum nestled into white-chocolate pastry cream.

Sweet Seduction: If you’re indecisive, the petits fours are the way to go — you can sample a few without feeling too guilty. The pear caramel hides a morsel of cognac-poached pear inside a dome of velvety caramel mousse. It’s a perfect pairing, somehow light and decadent at the same time. A milk chocolate petit four infused with curry wakes up the taste buds. It’s a bit hard to reconcile the clash of sweet and savory on the tongue, but it’s worth a try for the novelty alone.

Chocolate Pink seems perfectly situated to step up as the quintessential Midtown dessert spot, located as it is just a few blocks from a handful of popular restaurants. And not just dessert, either: I envision lazy Sunday mornings with the New York Times, a frothy cappuccino and a croissant. Sure, you can drop in to pick something up for a party (though I wouldn’t advise trying to pass it off as your own creation — no one will believe you). But it’s a lot more fun to linger on those pink banquettes, soaking up the sweetness.