Viva La Crepe
Whenever I’m in the Union Square vicinity craving something sweet, I feel like my choices are either Max Brenner or…Max Brenner. A few days ago after dinner in the area, my friends and I were trying to figure our game plan for dessert and we just as easily gave up and began heading for some chocolate by the bald man. We stopped in our tracks though when we caught a glimpse of Viva La Crepe!
The original outpost of Viva actually did start in Paris and grew to work its way stateside. They have a full savory and sweet menu, but the savory one might as well have not existed for us at that moment. We were busy trying to decide between dark chocolate, nutella, white chocolate, vanilla or chocolate ice cream, berries or almonds, etc. etc. We settled on a nutella/banana/almond/walnut/vanilla ice cream combo and a heavenly dark chocolate/berries/banana/vanilla ice cream one.
The crepes are served in a little pocket you can hold while you munch. Just a word of advise if you’re getting it with ice cream, ask for it on the side . It makes devouring it a LOT easier.
The crepes were nothing short of scrumptious. My friends kept commenting on how much better and fresh the vanilla ice cream was compared to the usual. I loved my crepe but felt like I could have probably done without the nuts (it made it a tad dry). But overall, the crepes were a good mix of soft and crunch, sweet and flavorful. Just a thought in case you’re over the fondue and chocolate pizzas!
PEEPSHI
“What do you call the love child of Easter and Japan?” Using little Peeps marshmallows, Serious Eats came up with “Peepshi.” How adorbs are these?? This cute dessert doesn’t require any wasabi (just Peeps, Rice Krispies Treats, and Fruit by the Fruit!).
POPBAR
Ok, I know I’ve had my rant about good and bad gelato earlier but regardless, I have been DYING to visit Popbar downtown. Well, mostly because the big posters of the gelatos-on-a-stick-covered-with-nuts-and-chocolatey-goodness look sooo appealing, but also because I’m always passing by it when I’m in the area to eat (which is often….Noodle Bar, Joe’s Pizza, Kati Roll…mmmm).
The thing is, every time I’m done eating at any of the aforementioned places, I’m stuffed. So, I always think to myself “next time.” That’s not without re-routing my way home just to intentionally pass by and stare at the dessert boutique longingly. That’s kind of what happened this time, but I was with friends. We just finished up a fantastic meal at Noodle Bar, and afterwards, I wanted to give them a mini tour of all the places I love to eat in the area (what? that’s totally normal). At the end, I point to Popbar: “And, I haven’t tried thisss place yet, but it looks amazing so let’s just go inside and look at the ice cream.” Again, totally normal.
Right away, my friends just looked at each other and were like, “Why do you want to stop in if you’re not going to eat anything?” Which is when I get all shifty-eyed: “Oh, you know, it just looks so good, doesn’t it? I swear I REALLY don’t have room for any though…” But I guess they weren’t having it… “So you always pass by but never had it? That’s it. We’re going to buy some NOW!” By the way, I just realized how creepy/stalkery this post makes me sound…passing by an ice cream store just to stare at it from a distance? I know how this might sound, but I do that with food.
We go in and gawk at all the possibilities for a minute. Mind you, we are still SO FULL from dinner, but when the person behind the counter said we can have any ice cream custom-made with chocolates of different varities, and toppings (almonds, pistachios, coconut, crushed hazelnuts I believe) on the spot, you had to hold us back. We decided on one coffee, one hazelnut, and a couple pistachio gelatos sprinkled with nuts and dipped halfway in chocolate. You can even have the chocolate drizzled or cover the ice cream in it completely. It’s just awesome.
I can’t repeat the racy innuendos my friends used to describe its deliciousness while they were eating, but let’s just say in the end, we were really glad we stopped in
