Bread & Chocolate: Bread Pudding

To contact us Click HERE
Bill


Bread & Chocolate’s bread pudding is a caramelized crust topping heavy, moist folds of bread, with pockets of cinnamon flavor.  Raisins are limited to the top.  That is a risky and often lazy approach, because bread pudding needs significant flavor and texture bursts to prevent a bland core.  However, this dish maintained decent flavor throughout. 



Bread & Chocolate serves this bread pudding cold, which helps condense the dish and spread the flavor elements.  It really should be served with a dairy-based sauce like crème anglais.  This bread pudding was very good, but an accompanying sauce, relatively thick and cold, might have elevated it to divine.  It deserves a great rating. 
I've only tried one other bread pudding in DC, at Elephant & Castle.  That is good, in part because it is served with a sauce.  However, I rank this one just a bit higher.


2301 M St, Washington, DC 20037(202) 833-8360

Google map & reviews (2.5/5)

Washington Examiner

Yelp (2.5/5)

Tripadvisor (3.5/5)

Brasserie Beck: Carrot cake muffins with cream cheese filling

To contact us Click HERE
Bill


Brasserie Beck turned a muffin into a serious dessert. The muffin is lightly toasted and served warm, so a slightly crunchy layer covers the warm, moist cake. The first time I tried these muffins, a squeeze of sweet cream cheese filling spread out a bit around the muffin top, and poked about an inch into the core. The whole thing was topped off with a splash of powdered sugar. The interplay of the crunchy shell and nearly gooey inner muffin, with the decadent touch of cream cheese is excellent, and carrot cake isn't even one of my favorites.




Muffins usually suffer from a massive decrease in quality between the top and bottom, but this muffin's delightful core will draw you to start at the bottom. The first time I tried these, I would have preferred the cream cheese filling to extend through more of the muffin's depth. However, I went back the next day, in large part for more muffins, and Brasserie Beck corrected that. The restaurant now inserts the cream cheese from the bottom of the muffin. The picture is of the earlier version, where the filling was inserted from above and erupted over the top. That’s the only change. These muffins deserve a divine rating. If you don’t like carrot cake, you should try them anyway. If you like carrot cake, it is your destiny to know these muffins.


1101 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 408-1717

Google map and reviews (4/5)

Washingtonian (2/4; 2010 Best Restaurants Rank: 80, unranked in 2011)

Washington Post (Critic: 2.5/4; Readers: 1.5/4)

Washington Times

Yelp (4/5)

Larry's Cookies Union Station: Chocolate Chunk Cookie

To contact us Click HERE
Josh

If you are in the market for a well made cookie, and happen to be traveling through DC on a train or by metro, take a second and stop at Larry's Cookies in the Union Station food court.




The Chocolate Chunk Cookie has both the mass and volume needed to satisfy one's sweeter cravings.  It deserves our great rating.  Other options include oatmeal raisin, butter pecan, double chocolate, crispy chocolate, Heath, and white chocolate.  A very simple yet delectable dessert!




Union Station Food Court
(202) 289-7586

Other locations include:

1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20004 (Reagan Building)
(202) 682-0080

1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW # 114, Washington, DC 20004 (Old Post Office)
(202) 682-1018

1633 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009
(202) 234-2690 

1100 S Hayes St. Arlington, VA 22202
(703) 415-2066

Bobby's Burger Palace: Vanilla Caramel Bourbon Milkshake

To contact us Click HERE
Bill


Burgers are the new tapas in DC, and at least this trend tends to bring milkshakes with it.  Unfortunately, Bobby's Burger Palace's Vanilla Caramel Bourbon milkshake comes nowhere near living up to the excitement about the restaurant overall. 




Instead of incorporating the caramel flavor evenly into the shake, some caramel ribbons swirl through the glass.  This caramel sauce can add intriguing texture and flavor to an ice-cream dish eaten with a spoon, but it's largely lost in a dish enjoyed through a thick straw.  This shake lacked the deep, indulgent vanilla flavor that should be expected in a vanilla shake.  The only traceable flavor was the bourbon.  The problem wasn't that the bourbon was so strong or voluminous that it overpowered the other flavors; it was that the other flavors were weak and didn't blend well.  This left the shake tasting like chilled bourbon and sugar rather than a milkshake.  Skip this dessert.


2121 K Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20037
(202) 974-6260

Google Map

Washington Post (Readers: 2/4)

Yelp (3/5)

Tripadvisor (4/5)

Bill's Red Velvet Cake: A Special Holiday Post From Our Guest Writer Laura

To contact us Click HERE
We normally don't review desserts that aren't offered commercially.  We're breaking the format for a special holiday post from Laura, as part of our effort to convince her to write for us.  If readers are interested, we'll see what we can do to share this cake.

Laura

Having entered chocolate cake-baking contests as a teen in 4-H, I thought I had seen it all when it comes to the marvels of a faultless cake.  Not so…and not until Thanksgiving 2011 when Bill made his deluxe red velvet cake.

Umm Georgetown Cupcake?  Crumbs what?!  Oh Founding Farmers, you’re so close, but no thank you.  Bill’s velvet underground is where it’s at.  This perfect combination of homemade cake batter made with select ingredients that result in a soft and gooey deep red cake layered and layered with soft cream-cheese, almost-frozen frosting is the most decadent holiday masterpiece.  It's so good that you'll make Santa's nice list, no matter how naughty your calorie count gets. 

THANKS BILL!!!

Wine events coming up in Charlotte

To contact us Click HERE

• The Wine Goddess wine classes start Tuesday, Feb. 5, at the Wine Shop Dilworth, 2442 Park Road. The goddess of the title is Leslie Franklin and the classes are designed to work for wine beginners as well as for more experienced wine fans. To make sure the classes are right for you, the first one, Feb. 5, is free. Classes are 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through March 12 and they cost $25 each or $20  if you pay for three in advance. Seating is limited; registration is required. Call 704-377-5373.
• The Wine Vault's Founders Hall wine tastings return Tuesday, Feb. 5, with a $25 tasting that covers 21 Big, Rich Reds at Aria. In addition, Aria will offer a three-course $30 menu and waive corkage fees for wines you buy at the tasting. Free valet parking on College Street. Call 704-548-9463 to sign up.

Got ideas to end hunger?

To contact us Click HERE

If you're a student in the first through 12 grades and you live in the U.S. or Canada (but not Quebec), you can win a $2,500 savings bond and a three-day trip to New York from the Olive Garden.

All you have to do is write a winning essay of 50 to 250 words on how to end hunger in your community. Olive Garden also will give a $5,000 grant to support your initiative in your town.

The contest is the 17th annual Pasta Tales essay contest by Darden Restaurants, the owner of Olive Garden. Essays are judged on creativity, adherence to theme, organization, grammar, punctuation and spelling by the Quill and Scroll Society of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Iowa. Winners are picked by Olive Garden.

Entries must be postmarked by March 22 and sent to Pasta Tales, PMB 2000, 6278 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308-1916. Get the full rules and entry form at www.olivegarden.com.