7 Desserts
We Love
by Jessica Clem-McClaren
A
t Food & Spirits Magazine, we believe dessert rules the
culinary roost; the delicious curtain call at the end of a savory
meal. No matter how great the entrée, how filling the appetizer,
and how bottomless the drinks, we always manage to find room
for something sweet. Omaha has made its mark as one of the best
places to eat in the Midwest. With a multitude of ethnic groups,
family restaurants and top chefs, Omaha has much to brag about.
The following list is a collection of editor and writer favorite
desserts, places that have perfected their craft of offering eyeopening and unique flavors. We hope you will stop at each of these
places and enjoy some of the best flavors in the Midwest.
“No matter how great the entree,
how filling the appetizer, and how
bottomless the drinks, we always
manage to find room for something
sweet.”
Patrons line up for the chocolate covered
morsels found at The Cordial Cherry
Chocolates at the Grey Plume feature olive oil
and vinegars from Chef^2
Omaha Culinary Tours: Chocolate and Pastries Bus Tour
Imagine a place where you are encouraged to eat dessert before
dinner. A place where you can be shuttled around to all the best
places in Omaha to indulge in sweet samples, without having to
figure out how to drive with a sugar buzz. Chocolate addicts rejoice,
the desert route by Omaha Culinary Tours (OCT) is here.
Well-known for their Midtown walking tours, OCT has taken it
up a nOCTh with the chocolate and pastries bus tour. For nearly
three hours, tour members are taken across the city on a bus, often
laden with sweet samples, to explore the best desserts in Omaha. At
each stop, bakers, restaurant owners and chefs explain the passion
behind their work and offer samples.
On our mid-February tour, stops included The Cordial Cherry
for the most decadent cherries on the planet, La Petit Paris French
Bakery for flaky, warm pastries, The Market Basket for meringue
cake that knocked my boots off, Gerda’s for homemade sugar
cookies and Stories for a spread fit for a black tie event; wine,
brownies, peppermint biscotti, caramel popcorn and more.
To top it off, our tour guides offered lemon and pecan bars from
Sweet Magnolias, truffles and hot chocolate from The Grey Plume,
and single roses for the ladies at the end of the tour.
The Cordial Cherry: Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries
So decadent were the cherries on this stop of the OCT bus tour,
it deserves its own shout out. The Cordial Cherry, located at 180th
and Pacific, is a hidden gem in a town saturated with breweries and
burgers. Owner Melissa Stephens opened the store in 2010 after
gaining a following for her chocolates during graduate school.
The store itself is mirrored after a boutique, whimsical and
charming, with a “build it yourself ” style of selection. Rows of
chocolate cherries, cherries dressed as cupcakes and chocolate cherry
wedding cakes dazzle the eye, and it is nearly impossible to fill a box
in less than 20 minutes.
Walking in a wonderland of ganache and grandeur, I found an
impossibly simple dessert that I will remember for a long time: the
dark chocolate cherry. Nestled in a dollop of chocolate, a cordial
filled cherry rests in a coat of dark, rich chocolate, drizzled with
milk chocolate and finished with a delicate stem sticking out of
the top. A warning to newbies, make sure to eat this all at once.
The juicy cherry pops, and the chocolate shell breaks into smooth,
velvety pieces, rendering you unable to pronounce your delight
until you swallow. Unique and charming, The Cordial Cherry is a
West Omaha gem.
Salt: Coffee Gelato
The first time I had gelato, it was served by a dark haired woman
in sunglasses, out of a candy pink cart in Hungary, on the Pest
side of the capital. It was cappuccino, perfectly sweet, creamy and
delicious. Ever since, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have another
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