on Wednesday, October 29, 2003We comb streets of Akron seeking most fabulous desserts. Most, no coincidence, feature chocolate
By Jane Snow
Beacon Journal food writer
The washing machine broke, your dog ran away and the boss chewed you out. You need some chocolate, dearie, and we know where to get a fix.
Not just any chocolate fix, but the best in town.
The Akron area is paved with outrageous chocolate desserts, from the fallen chocolate souffle at Ken Stewart's Grille to the molten chocolate-bananas Foster extravaganza at Tangier. Almost every restaurant that takes itself seriously offers a dessert that promises to whap you with an intense chocolate experience.
Although all of the desserts have their charms -- they're all chocolate, after all -- only one is the best. It is the sophisticated but wildly chocolaty Fantasia Cioccolato at Piatto in downtown Akron.The dessert is brilliantly conceived to bombard the senses with all kinds of chocolate -- smooth, chewy, cold, creamy and even tart.
"Personally, I wanted to see something on the menu that had a lot of textural differences," chef Roger Thomas said.
His creation trumped the chocolate desserts at 12 other local restaurants in a monthlong taste test.
During the dessert trek, it became clear that chocolate is by far the favorite dessert flavor in the Akron area.
"People never get tired of chocolate," said chef Marion Smith, who serves a terrific triple-layer chocolate-Grand Marnier cake at Waters restaurant in Hudson.
We aren't alone in our love of chocolate. In a 2001 poll, 52 percent of Americans nationwide named chocolate as their favorite dessert flavor.
More women than men prefer chocolate, but men aren't too far behind. In the poll commissioned by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, 57 percent of women preferred chocolate, compared to 46 percent of men.
Thomas isn't surprised. After a brief fling with fruit desserts in the early 1990s, diners returned to chocolate and never looked back, he said. The flavor is so popular with his customers that three of the six desserts at his restaurant include chocolate.
"I'd say chocolate is back with a vengeance," Thomas said.
At most fancy local restaurants, the chocolate comes in the form of a warm chocolate cake with a liquid center. Called variously "molten chocolate cake," "chocolate decadent" and "fallen chocolate souffle," it was featured at seven of the 13 restaurants I visited.
Molten chocolate cake is an individual, dome-shaped cake baked fresh to order or quickly reheated. The center is filled with chocolate ganache -- a mixture of chocolate and cream -- that melts during the baking and spills onto the plate when the cake is cut. The dessert is not only popular with customers but it's also easy to make, which is why it has remained on some dessert menus for years.
Not all molten chocolate cakes are created equal, though. Tangier pastry chef Susan Littell turns the simple dessert into a work of edible art with its separate elements of bananas sauteed in brown sugar, butter and cinnamon; ice cream in a cookie tuille (a thin, shaped wafer) draped with chocolate-banana sauce; a pane of brittle spun sugar; and -- oh, yes -- the warm chocolate cake itself.
"When you're going to have a dessert and you're going to spend a lot of calories, you might as well go for it," Littell said.
That's exactly why we compiled this list. Whether you're in the mood to celebrate or console, include one of these yummy creations.
The best
1. Piatto
326 S. Main St., Akron; 330-255-1140.
Fantasia Cioccolato, $6 -- This tour de force delivers the chocolate in a variety of ways. It is at once silken and chewy, cold and warm, sweet and fudgy, yet slightly tart. Not only does it taste fabulous, it also looks like a dream. A dome of mousselike panna cotta perches on a square of flourless chocolate cake on a plate lashed with ivory espresso cream sauce and dark chocolate ganache. The dome is drizzled with a teaspoon of both sauces and crowned with a thin pane of bittersweet chocolate.
The cold panna cotta -- an eggless Italian custard made with sour cream, cream, chocolate and gelatin -- has an incredibly satiny texture. The slight tartness from the sour cream cuts through the sweetness of the fudgy, flourless cake that lies underneath. Chef-owner Roger Thomas designed and often makes the dessert.
2. Tangier Restaurant
532 W. Market St., Akron; 330-376-7171.
Molten Chocolate Cake, $5 -- This dessert was on the menu of eight of the 13 restaurants visited, but Tangier's was the best. Pastry chef Susan Littell uses real butter, cream and good chocolate to produce a rich chocolate cake with a big chocolate flavor. The individual warm cake has the requisite liquid chocolate center that floods the plate when the first forkful is gouged out.
Littell, whose motto is "more is better," doesn't stop there, though. She sautes a pile of sliced bananas Foster and nestles them alongside a fist-size scoop of Woo City vanilla bean ice cream ensconced in a big cornucopia molded from a wafer cookie. The oversize glass plate is dusted with powdered sugar. The ice cream is draped with banana-caramel sauce and topped with a thin pane of spun sugar.
The frills are not there to make up for a lackluster chocolate cake, because the cake itself is outstanding -- delicately crunchy on the outside, with an intense chocolate flavor. Littell emphasizes the chocolate by reducing the sugar, a trick other pastry chefs should learn.
3. Ken Stewart's Grille
1970 W. Market St., Akron; 330-867-2555.
Fallen Chocolate Souffle, $8.95 -- Although the name is different, this is basically a molten chocolate cake, albeit the perfect version of it. The dessert requires a 20-minute wait, which means it is fresh-made rather than heated up.
What's different about Stewart's version is the brownielike crust. It is thick and chewy, and contrasts gloriously with the liquid chocolate interior.
The individual cake, one of the largest sampled, is served on an oversize plate crosshatched with chocolate syrup, dusted with powdered sugar and garnished with mounds of blueberries, raspberries and marionberries as big as your thumb. The berries cut the sweetness of the chocolate, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream is a cool counterpoint to the warm cake. The only sour note is the ridiculous price.
The rest
Beau's Grille
Fairlawn Town Centre, Fairlawn; 330-865-5577. (Moving soon to 3180 W. Market St., Fairlawn.)
Warm Chocolate Decadent, $4.95 -- Although the flavor could be more pronounced, you can't beat the price of this molten chocolate cake, which sits in a pool of raspberry sauce on a dinner plate decorated with chocolate squiggles and fresh raspberries.
Bistro on Main
1313 W. Main St., Kent; 330-673-9900.
Chocolate Stout Torte, $6 -- The three-layer mini cake is an interesting combination of dark chocolate cake infused with stout (dark beer), and layers of whipped mascarpone cheese. Chocolate and stout are a classic flavor combination, but it took a real beer lover to think of combining them in a cake.
Bricco
1 W. Exchange St., Akron; 330-475-1600.
Chocolate Molten Cake, $5 -- The dome-shaped cake has the usual liquid chocolate center, and is served with vanilla ice cream and four or five big marionberries. The waiter may suggest a topping of brown sugar, dark rum and honey, heated and poured over the dessert in the kitchen. Save the extra $3.75 this frill will cost; it adds very little flavor.
The Grotto
1841 Merriman Road, Akron; 330-869-4981.
Chocolate Decadence, $5 -- This is the kind of chocolate cake that's best eaten in a robe and bunny slippers, while watching a tear-jerker movie and trying to get over a lost love. It's so sweet, it will make your teeth ache, and so deep-dark chocolate, it could make you forget Ben Affleck -- for a while, at least.
Chef Louis Prbich slathers the three layers of moist, dark chocolate cake with old-fashioned, dark chocolate buttercream frosting. In case you miss the point, the chocolate ganache filling is studded with miniature bittersweet chocolate chips.
Hyde Park Grille
4073 Medina Road, Bath Township; 330-670-6303.
Molten Cake, $5.95 -- This cake apparently is made in advance and reheated, because it was not warm all the way through. The chocolate flavor was vague but the presentation was boffo. The little cake was drizzled with creme anglaise (custard sauce), topped with berries and a mint sprig, and set adrift in a lake of raspberry sauce decorated with precise swirls of creme anglaise.
LeFever's River Grille
2291 Riverfront Parkway, Cuyahoga Falls; 330-923-4233.
Molten Chocolate Cake, $6 -- This is one of the best. The chocolate flavor comes through loud and clear. The warm cake is served on a big white plate painted Kandinski-style with raspberry and chocolate sauces. It comes with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream and a garnish of fresh raspberries.
McKenna's
1110 Tallmadge Road, Brimfield Township; 330-673-8665.
Grand Marnier Chocolate Torte, $5 -- Pastry chef Beth Danechi tops two slices of chocolate torte with a pile of real whipped cream and strawberries. The three-layer cake is infused with orange liqueur and filled and frosted with chocolate ganache. Danechi's cake is light and luscious.
Moe's Restaurant
2385 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls; 339-928-6600.
Boca Negra, $6 -- The small wedge of smooth, dense chocolate cake has a deep chocolate flavor and a texture that teeters between mousse and cake. It almost beat out Ken Stewart's fallen souffle for third place. Although the dessert menu at Moe's changes weekly, this is a semiregular. It comes buried under real whipped cream and garnished with two chocolate-stuffed cookie "cigarettes."
Vaccaro's Trattoria
1000 Ghent Road, Bath Township; 330-666-6158.
Molten Center Chocolate Cake, $6.95 -- This version is baked in a muffin tin and has a slightly crusty exterior and a warm, liquid center. The chocolate is more of a whisper than a shout. The cake is flanked with berries and a scoop of cherry gelato.
 Waters Chocolate Sin, $6.95 -- Three layers of chocolate genoise (an elegant sponge cake) are brushed with Grand Marnier, layered with chocolate mousse and covered with a glossy, dark chocolate ganache. This is a great cake. It has a variety of textures and lots of chocolate flavor, but is not overly sweet. |
Jane Snow was the Beacon Journal's food writer. She can be reached at janesnow@akrobiz.com Please put "food" in the subject line. Because of computer viruses, she will not open e-mail with other subject headings.
Original Artical removed by request from ohio.com - Linda M. Lyell, llyell@knightridder.com on 2004-03-08
And I put the original article back on 2007-06-13...
OK, there used to be a nice re-print of an Akron Beacon Journal article reviewing the best deserts in Akron here. But, evidently, Knight Ridder would rather charge the end-user $3.00 to view an archived newspaper article (without pictures at that, my clipping had the original pictures) instead of getting free publicity and good will from a subscriber who just wanted a way to keep his newspaper clippings where he could always find them.
Feel free to complain to: Linda M. Lyell, General Manager, Ohio.com
I mean, I understand copyright law. I do want Knight Ridder to make money, I like and use their products. But, there has to be a better way to handle this kind of public use.
They were very nice when they contacted me, they said "Just link to the content on our site instead". The main reason I like hosting the content on my site is that I know it will be there when I go to look for it. Well, I went to look for the original article on the ohio.com web site. It is no longer there. To view a text only version you have to pay the $3.00 fee.
If I put my newspaper clippings on this web site, but password protected them so that only I could get to them they would not care, or even know about it. But, if I use my bandwidth to present the same info publicly they make me shut it down.
I suppose in this day and age of Google and other search engines I could be costing them a few of those $3.00 retrieval fees. Maybe... All I know is I wouldn't pay them $3.00 to retrieve an archived article, I think that service should be free to subscribers, but what do I know about making customers happy...
I do know that it has gotten me 'miffed' and unhappy so that as soon as there is an alternative to the Akron Beacon Journal I will gleefully jump ship & wave goodbye to Knight Ridder. And I'll recommend to everyone else that I know that they do the same!
Well, ohio.com's search feature was unable to find the article outside of the pay area, but google.com was (Let's see how long this link stays live & still no pictures!): Mmmmmm, chocolate
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